DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Law and Practice Contributed by: Sarah de León Perelló, Elizabeth Silfa Micheli and Naomi Rodríguez Manzueta, Headrick Rizik Álvarez & Fernández
protected by Law No 65-00, acts and contracts that refer to copyright or related rights. The limitations and exceptions to copyright are of restrictive interpretation and may not be applied in such a way that they violate the normal exploitation of the work or cause unjustified damage to the interests of the owner of the respective right. The owner of the copyright or a related right, succes - sors in title, or whoever has the conventional repre - sentation of the same, has the right to decide how they will initiate and proceed in the exercise of the rights conferred by law. Law No 65-00 contemplates administrative sanctions, such as fines and civil and criminal liability for violation of copyright. The copyright over a work is divided into moral and economic rights. Regarding moral rights, the author has a perpetual, imprescriptible and inalienable right to claim paternity over the work. While, economically, the rights correspond to the author during their life and to the spouse and successors for 70 years from the death of the author. For some works, such as anony - mous and collective works, the protection starts from the publication or from its creation, if it is not pub - lished within 50 years from its creation. Protection for a computer program is 70 years from publication or from its creation, if it is not published within 50 years from its creation. 7.5 Others Computer Programs Software, or computer programs, as they are regu - lated by Law No 65-00 on Copyright, are protected in the same terms as literary works, whether source programs or object programs, or by any other form of expression, including technical documentation and user manuals. A computer program is defined by Law No 65-00 as the expression of a set of instructions through words, codes, plans or in any other way that, when incorpo - rated into an automated reading device, is capable of making a computer or other type of machine execute a task or obtain a result.
The protection of software extends to both operating and application programs, in source code or in object code, as well as technical documentation and user manuals. Databases In the Dominican Republic, databases are also recog - nised as literary works. The protection extends to the bases or compilations of data or other materials that are legible by machine or in any other way that, further to the selection or provision of its contents, constitute creations of an intellectual nature. However, the protection does not extend to the compiled data or information. Trade Secrets Trade secrets are regulated by Law No 20-00 on Industrial Property. They are identified as business secrets and defined as any undisclosed commercial information that a natural or legal person possesses that can be used in any productive, industrial or com - mercial activity, and that is likely to be transmitted to a third party. According to the law, a business secret shall be rec - ognised as such for purposes of its protection when the information which constitutes it: • is not generally known or easily accessible by per - sons who are in the circles that normally manage the respective information; and • has been subject to reasonable measures taken by its legitimate owner to keep it secret. Law No 20-00 establishes that actions considered unfair competition with respect to a business secret are: • exploiting it without the authorisation of the legiti - mate owner; and • a business secret to which access has been obtained subject to a confidentiality obligation, resulting from a contractual or employment rela - tionship. It is important to take into account that the law does not establish specific sanctions for the violation of
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