June 21, 2024

Accession to the International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed Law №930 dated 06/05/2024 “On the accession of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations” (Rome Convention of 1961).

This Convention is aimed at protecting intellectual rights by introducing the provisions of the convention into the national legislation of the state party.

In the process of signing the law on accession to the Rome Convention of 1961, the following reservations were made by the Republic of Uzbekistan:

1. According to paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Rome Convention, “The Republic of Uzbekistan provides protection for broadcasting only if the headquarters of the broadcasting organization is located in another contracting state and the transmission is carried out using a transmitter located in the same state”;

2. According to subparagraph a) (iii) of paragraph 1 of Article 16 of the Rome Convention, “The Republic of Uzbekistan will not apply Article 12 about phonograms, the manufacturer of which is not a citizen or legal entity of another contracting state.”

Revealing the essence of the reservations made, Uzbekistan took advantage of the right given by Article 6 of the Rome Convention and made a reservation (changed some of the convention’s provisions). Following the reservation made, Uzbekistan protects broadcasting only if the broadcasting organization is located in the territory of another state party to the convention.

Broadcasting organizations are the holders of related rights. This means that one protected object has several authors. So, for example, a recording transmitted by a broadcasting organization has several rights holders as the performer of this object. The Republic of Uzbekistan, per the reservation to the Rome Convention of 1961, provides protection only to those transmissions located in another contracting state.

Regarding the second reservation made by the Republic of Uzbekistan, Article 12 of the Rome Convention of 1961 states that the reusing of a phonogram is obliged to pay a one-time remuneration to the performer or producer of the phonogram. However, according to the reservation made by the Republic of Uzbekistan, this provision does not apply to producers of a phonogram who are not nationals of another Contracting State.