LIBYA Law and Practice Contributed by: Salaheddin El Busefi, Heba Gedwar and Mahmud Zahaf, Zahaf & Partners
bring civil and criminal actions in order to pro - tect their trademark. It is also possible that a court may order the confiscation and destruc - tion of the problematic goods as a further means to deter obfuscation. Customs authorities are also obliged to prohibit the entry of goods that infringe trademark registration. 7.3 Industrial Design Industrial design is also governed and protected under Law No 8 (1959) on Patents and Indus - trial Designs. It defines Industrial Design as any shape or lines, in colour or without colour, used for industrial production whether manually or by chemical means as an industrial design or model. The registration of an industrial design works in the same fashion as a patent except that the documents required include a copy of the company’s commercial extract and the validity period granted is for five and not 15 years – it may be renewed up to two times consecutively. 7.4 Copyright Copyright law is a respected area of Libyan law that regulates and protects literal, artistic and scientific works of any type or mode of expres - sion. Governed by Law No 9 (1968) on Issuing Copyright Protection, any natural or legal per - son who registers such works in their name is deemed as its author, unless proven otherwise. The law covers everything from written, musical, photographic and even dramatic works. To com - ply with copyright protections, it is important that the works to be copyrighted have not become public property and therefore already accessible in the public domain without the author’s control. Registration requires that the material to be cop - yrighted be deposited at the Ministry of Culture
and Information’s Copyright Protection Office within one month of its publication. The period of protection for copyrighted works is for the lifetime of the author, plus 50 years after their death. Infringement of copyrighted works in Libya carries severe penalties, including impris - onment. 7.5 Others Libya’s IP legislation still has significant room for development and does not yet extend into many of the increasingly relevant areas of modern business. Although current legislation does address major IP areas concerning trade marks, copyrights and patents, more obscure areas such as the protections of trade secrets and business processes lack specific law. It is arguable that the current legal framework may struggle to keep pace with the rapid technologi - cal advancements and the growing volume of cross-border commercial activity that character - ise today’s business environment. This concern is further highlighted by the fact that Libya’s leg - islation on patents and copyrights, for instance, dates back to the late 1950s. Unlike other jurisdictions, there is no main leg - islation or fully fledged regulation that governs data protection in Libya. This means that with the advent of technology and IT systems, Libyan legislation is still trailing behind when it comes to how personal data is or can be processed across society and business. Private correspondence and privacy of homes are protected under the Libyan Penal Code 1953; however, strides still need to be made in 8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations
467 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook