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Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Rwanda

Title:Articles 261 to 263 of the Law No. 31/2009 of 26/10/2009 on the Protection of Intellectual Property
Field of IP:Patents
Type of flexibility:Criminal sanctions for patent infringement
Summary table:PDF

Provisions of Law

Article 261: Act of forgery

Subject to the provisions of this Law, any industrial or commercial use, in the Republic of Rwanda, of an invention, utility model, industrial design and model, mark or other distinctive sign of business, trade name, geographical indication or layout design integrated circuit, which is the subject of a protection title granted under this Law and made by any person other than the owner of the title and without his or her consent, shall constitute an act of forgery.

Any infringement of copyrights or related rights protected under this Law, committed willfully or by gross negligence, by any third person for profit-making purposes and without owner's right consent shall constitute an act of forgery.

Any third person, who knowingly sells, offers on sale, is making rent, detains or introduces on the territory of the Republic of Rwanda, the alleged infringing goods for commercial purposes, shall be considered as committing the same offence.

Article 262: Proceedings against an act of forgery

On a request by the owner of the protected right, the competent tribunal shall order the infringer to pay the right owner damages and adequate compensation for the infringement of his or her intellectual property right provided that the infringer acted knowingly or with reasonable grounds to know of the infringement.

For an industrial property title, the request for the competent tribunal to order the payment of damages may be filed only after the protection title of industrial property right in question is granted and shall relate to acts of infringement practiced at the filing date of the application of industrial title or subsequent to this date.

Article 263: Criminal penalties for an act of forgery of industrial property title

Any person who knowingly performs an act constituting an infringement under paragraph one and paragraph three(3) of article 261 of this Law, or an unlawful act as per paragraph one of article 5, paragraph three ( 3) of article 164 and articles 180 to 185 of this Law, shall commit an offence and shall be liable to a maximum fine of fifty thousand Rwandan Francs (50.000) to five hundred millions Rwandan Francs (500.000.000) or a maximum term of imprisonment of five (5) years, or one or both of penalties.

Any person who steals or uses by fraudulent manner a formula of invention in any industrial activity shall be punished of an active confinement of one to five (5) years and a fine of five to ten times the value of profits attributable to the infringement.

In addition to criminal penalties, the competent tribunal may also order the seizure, confiscation and destruction of the incriminating items and of all materials or instruments used mainly for the crime to be committed.

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