A new draft legislation on the protection of Intellectual Property is under consideration in parliament. It contains provisions that seek to fill gaps that have manifested during the implementation of the law that is currently in place.

Some of the challenges that the proposed law is expected to help address is the lack of an institutional framework exclusively dedicated to IP matters, bottlenecks related to provisional patents while the applicant finalises their invention, and protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expression.

The draft law, under which the government is also proposing tougher penalties for IP rights breaches, including jail terms, is also expected to provide guidance on protection of orphan works, photographic works, layout-designs, publication of application of registration of all industrial properties in the official gazette, among others.

While IP laws are not new in Rwanda, violations of copyrights and patents are commonplace, undermining innovation and creativity. In other cases, piracy, imitations and other forms of violations have fed off the failure of the owners of creative works to register them.

Indeed, IP violations have severely inhibited the growth of key sectors like the creative industry.

In one of the most shocking cases of utter violations of IP rights, traditional singer Mavenge Sudi recently admitted to stealing musical compositions of his mentor Gaetan Kayitare, who died during 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The disgraced musician admitted that Kayitare was the man who composed popular ‘Mavenge’ songs like Ku Munini, Gakoni k’Abakobwa  and Simbi, yet the former went on to release and publish the songs as if they were his.

This, despite repeated warnings from Kayitare’s family.

All the while, Mavenge made no effort to credit Kayitare, whom he now claims was his close friend and mentor. He has since apologised to the public for these shameful acts but it’s disturbing that he had been fooling the public and benefiting from IP fraud for so long.

Yet, this is just one of the countless disreputable things going on in our creative industry. This is morally wrong and illegal. People should be rewarded for their effort and innovation.

It is, therefore, important that relevant authorities and stakeholders step up efforts to raise public awareness about Intellectual Property, with view to preventing such fraudulent acts and impunity.

We call on the lawmakers to expedite the process to enact the proposed law, which should help fix some of these challenges and boost the creative economy.