MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sameer K Tegally, Sonia Xavier and Ashvan Luckraz, Venture Law
Hence, copyright law in Mauritius covers work transmitted by way of mass public communica - tion, such as paintings, drawings, films, perfor - mances, music, literary works and even com - puterised systems for storage and retrieval of information. Copyright protection is obtained automatically, without the need for registration, as soon as the work becomes fixed in some material form, irre - spective of its mode or form of expression. There are specific durations for the protection of copy - right 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 granting any such remedies as the Court thinks fit. This covers remedies such as dam - ages, injunction, or forfeiture 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 Chambers for an injunction or a mesure conserv- atoire , 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, soft - ware and databases may be protected under the Unfair Practices Act. According to Sections 5 to 9 of the Unfair Prac - tices Act, any act that is contrary to honest com - mercial practice and that (i) causes confusion with respect to another’s enterprise or activities; (ii) damages another’s goodwill or reputation; (iii) misleads the public; (iv) discredits another’s
enterprise or activities; or (v) creates unfair com - petition with respect to secret information 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 exceeding five years. The term “contrary to honest commercial prac - tice” includes ”breach of contract, a breach of confidence, an inducement to breach or the acquisition of undisclosed 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 goodwill 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 appearance of a prod - uct; the presentation of products or services; or a celebrity or a well-known fictional character is penalised under the Unfair Practices Act. The governing piece of legislation for data pro - tection in Mauritius, namely the Data Protection Act 2017 (the “Act”), which was enacted on 8 December 2017 to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679. Two other pieces of legislation also provide addi - tional safeguards to the right to privacy and data protection in Mauritius: • Article 22 of the Mauritian Civil Code pro - vides that “ Chacun a droit au respect de sa 8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations
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