HAITI Law and Practice Contributed by: Vanessa Abdel-Razak, Ludsen Saint-Phar and Webster Registre, Cabinet Abdel-Razak & Associés
painting, sculpture, engraving and other graphic or plastic arts, architectural works, photographic works, computer software, databases (where the selection or arrangement of content is original), and collective or collaborative works, provided that the work is original and expressed in a tangible form. These categories are expressly provided for by statute and are interpret - ed broadly in line with international copyright princi - ples. Industrial designs, as such, are not automatically protected by copyright; however, they may benefit from copyright protection only to the extent that they qualify as original artistic works, meaning that protec - tion covers the creative artistic expression and not the purely functional or industrial features. Where an industrial design is dictated primarily by technical or functional considerations, copyright protection will not apply, and protection – if any – must be sought under the industrial design regime rather than copyright law. 3.2 Essential Elements of Copyright Protection To qualify for copyright protection under the applica - ble legal framework, a work must meet the following cumulative requirements: • Originality: The work must be the result of the author’s own intellectual creation and reflect a min - imal degree of creativity. Purely mechanical, routine or commonplace expressions are not protected. • Authorship: The work must be created by a natural person (or identified author(s) in the case of collab - orative or collective works). Copyright initially vests in the author, subject to any valid written transfer. • Fixation in a tangible form: The work must be expressed in a form that allows it to be perceived, reproduced or communicated, either directly or with the aid of a device. Ideas, concepts or meth - ods as such are not protected. • Expression, not ideas: Protection extends only to the original expression of an idea, and not to the underlying ideas, procedures, systems or methods of operation. • Lawful subject matter: The work must fall within a category of protectable works recognised by copyright law and must not be excluded due to its purely functional, technical or utilitarian nature.
Where these conditions are met, copyright protection arises automatically, without any requirement of reg - istration or formal notice. 3.3 Copyright Authorship Authorship is defined by statute under the Decree of 12 October 2005 on Copyright and Related Rights and refers to the natural person who creates the work. To be considered an author, a person must have made an original intellectual contribution to the expression of the work; copyright initially vests in that author. Haitian law recognises works made for hire or commissioned works only where there is a clear written agreement providing for the transfer of economic rights; in the absence of such agreement, authorship remains with the natural person creator, even if the work was cre - ated within an employment or contractual context (the corporate entity may acquire economic rights but is not the “author” in the moral-rights sense). Author - ship cannot be claimed for works not created by a human; works generated solely by artificial intelli - gence, animals or other non-human agents do not qualify for authorship under the Haitian framework, though human-authored contributions (eg, creative selection or arrangement) may be protected if origi - nality is shown. Joint authorship arises where two or more natural persons collaborate intentionally in the creation of a work and their contributions are inseparable or inter - dependent parts of a single whole. The key factors are a shared intent to create a unitary work and original contributions by each contributor. Each joint author holds rights in the entire work and, unless otherwise agreed, may independently exploit the work, subject to an obligation to account to the other co-authors. Ownership shares are generally presumed to be equal, unless a written agreement or clear evidence establishes a different allocation based on the parties’ agreement. 3.4 Copyright Rights Copyright owners’ rights are expressly defined by statute under the Decree of 12 October 2005 on Cop - yright and Related Rights. The law grants authors and other rights holders a bundle of economic (patrimo - nial) rights, including the exclusive right to reproduce the work, distribute it to the public, communicate
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