The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) has announced Qatar’s accession to the Rome Convention on the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations (1961), with effect from September 23.

The convention includes the protection of the intellectual property rights of broadcasters from any infringement. This includes the right to wireless transmission and live broadcast of television performances to the public; the right to re-broadcast via another broadcasting organisation, as well as the right to broadcast audio, sound or images to the public; the right of fixation and reproduction of performances and the authorisation of others to these rights, and the protection of broadcasting organisations authorised by the State to operate and maintain a main headquarters on its territory.
“The accession of Qatar to the Rome Convention marks another milestone in the country’s successful journey in the field of intellectual property rights protection, in which Qatar ranks first in the Arab world for the eighth consecutive year and 20th worldwide,” the MEC said in a statement.
Further, the statement that the accession of Qatar to this and other international conventions and treaties related to the protection of intellectual property rights also aims at protecting the rights of legitimate copyright owners due to the important commercial and economic repercussions of intellectual property rights in terms of promoting economic growth and development to accomplish Qatar National Vision 2030.
Qatar has previously acceded to a number of international conventions for the protection of copyright and related rights, such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the first international convention to protect the rights of authors, performers and producers of phonograms, as well as the WIPO Copyright Treaty And the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Performances and Phonograms.
The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (1961) is characterised by provisions to protect broadcasting organisations.

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