MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sameer K. Tegally, Sonia Xavier and Ashvan Luckraz, Venture Law
ic and moral rights subsisting in a work. “Work” is defined as “an artistic, literary or scientific work or a derivative work”. Hence, copyright law in Mauritius covers work trans - mitted by way of mass public communication, such as paintings, drawings, films, performances, music, liter - ary works and even computerised systems for storage and retrieval of information. Copyright protection is obtained automatically, with - out the need for registration, as soon as the work becomes fixed in some material form, irrespective of its mode or form of expression. There are specific durations for the protection of copyright under the CA 2014. For instance, authors enjoy protection for their whole lifetimes and 40 years after their death. In the event of breach of copyright, a civil action may be initiated with the Supreme Court for an order grant - ing any such remedies as the Court thinks fit. This covers remedies such as damages, injunction or for - feiture of any infringing copy and/or any apparatus, article or thing used for the making of the infringing copy. A copyright owner may also apply to a judge in cham - bers for an injunction or a mesure conservatoire , as is appropriate in the circumstances. A copyright fee is now leviable in respect of every user of a work. 7.5 Others Intellectual property such as trade secrets, software and databases may be protected under the Protection against Unfair Practices (Industrial Property Rights) Act 2002. According to Sections 5 to 9 of the Unfair Practices Act, any act that is contrary to honest commercial practice and that (i) causes confusion with respect to another’s enterprise or activities; (ii) damages anoth - er’s goodwill or reputation; (iii) misleads the public; (iv) discredits another’s enterprise or activities; or (v) creates unfair competition with respect to secret infor - mation will be considered unlawful and will amount to a criminal offence leading to a fine not exceeding MUR250,000 and a term of imprisonment not exceed - ing five years.
The term “contrary to honest commercial practice” includes “breach of contract, a breach of confidence, an inducement to breach or the acquisition of undis - closed information by third parties who knew, or were grossly negligent in failing to know, that any such practice was involved in the acquisition”. Moreover, causing confusion with respect to another’s enterprise or activities, or damaging another’s good - will or reputation in relation to a trade mark, whether registered or not; a trade name; a business identifier other than a trade mark or trade name; the appear - ance of a product; the presentation of products or ser - vices; or a celebrity or a well-known fictional character is penalised under the Unfair Practices Act. The governing piece of legislation for data protec - tion in Mauritius is the Data Protection Act 2017 (the “Act”), enacted on 8 December 2017 and in force since 15 January 2018, to align with the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR). Two other pieces of legislation also provide additional safeguards to the right to privacy and data protection in Mauritius: • Article 22 of the Mauritian Civil Code provides that “ Chacun a droit au respect de sa vie privée ” (ie, every person is entitled to the protection of their private life). • Article 300 of the Mauritian Criminal Code makes it a criminal offence for certain categories of professionals to disclose confidential information obtained in the course of their duties. The Act imposes strict duties on data controllers and processors to ensure that all personal data is pro - cessed in compliance with the Act. Every data controller or processor must be able to demonstrate that personal data are: • processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent man - ner in relation to any data subject; 8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations
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