Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Le droit de la propriété intellectuelle français constitue un régime de droit spécial des biens. Si les conditions d’appropriation sont spécifi ques et ne s’appuient guère sur le droit civil, le régime de la propriété, la circulation et l’exploitation des biens intellectuels font, en revanche, largement appel au droit commun civil, princi palement par le biais d’un mécanisme supplétif et, parfois, par le biais d’un renvoi express. Cet article propose quelques illustrations de ce lien constant qui permet, d’une part, d’apporter à la propriété intellectuelle les compléments de régime dont elle a impérativement besoin et, d’autre part, de confronter les solutions du droit civil aux meubles incorporels.

The right to health and the right to development are intertwined socio-economic rights that affect the well being and growth of a country’s populace. Most developing and least developed countries face challenges in ensuring access to essential medicines vis a vis the realisation of the right to health and full potential of development. Patents, provided for under the TRIPS Agreement are partly to blame for the lack of access to essential medicines as they account for the excessive pricing of medicines. Zimbabwe being a developing country currently facing dire economic and political challenges but being obliged under the International and Regional Human Rights Conventions it subscribed to, has to ensure the progressive realisation of the right to health and development. However, as a member of the TRIPS Agreement, there are limitations to the country’s ability to ensure access to medicines and healthcare for developmental purposes. This thesis has outlined the problematic provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and Zimbabwe’s attempt to use the flexibilities provided to its advantage. Zimbabwe has only put into use the flexibility of compulsory licensing and parallel importation to a limited extent; hence the recommendation that even though the country has domesticated the Agreement to its advantage, the country needs to explore other flexibilities comprehensively and promote the realisation of the rights to health and development.

La fabrication, l’utilisation et la vente aux États-Unis d’un produit couvert par un brevet américain, sans l’autorisation du breveté, constitue une contrefaçon de ce brevet. Toutefois, certains développements législatifs et des décisions de justice rendues ces dernières années ont montré que la portée d’un brevet américain pouvait être étendue à des activités se produisant en dehors du territoire américain. The unauthorized making use or sale within the United States of a product covered by a U.S. patent infringes the patent. However, in many cases damages and liability for infringing U.S. patents can extend beyond purely domestic uses to cover activities taking place far outside the United States. U.S. patents may cover activities that have little or nothing to do with the United States. Many companies are unaware of this surprisingly broad geographic reach. This article reviews such activities.

Le présent travail propose une étude approfondie de la définition de la marque renommée et de la protection dont elle bénéficie à l’heure actuelle au niveau national, à la lumière du nouveau contexte européen et international.

The maxim, that copyright law does not protect ideas, is frequently challenged when the established principles are tested against new forms of expression or exploitation of a work. The evolution of computer programs, its unique characteristics and the increasing value of software as a commodity have resulted in a strained relationship between copyright law and the public interest regarding access to the underlying ideas in a computer program. This work examines the misalliance between copyright principles and the technical nature of computer programming, with a specific focus on the act of decompiling an existing program where it is undertaken in order to understand the underlying ideas and techniques. The impetus for this analysis is the sui generis classification of computer programs in South African copyright law and the potential this offers for development of domestic law in pursuit of national policy goals. This work conducts a normative analysis of the law and the technical reality of decompilation, from the perspective that copyright law must maintain a clear separation between the idea and the expression. The review of national and foreign copyright law is, throughout, conducted with a perspective on the effect of protection and a critical examination of the degree to which the law maintains an adequate balance between the private and public interests in the protection of software. In this respect, the current legal position is evaluated and a different, normative and prodevelopmental perspective regarding decompilation is proposed. It is submitted that are balancing of interests is justified and essential in order to establish an appropriate level of fairness and, at the same time, stimulate progress in this industry. It is argued that the act of using computer code to discover its meaning should not amount to infringement in the form of reproduction or adaptation of the work. It is found that the perception of decompilation, as a form of infringement, relies on an analogy to literary work. This view, it is argued, is ill suited to the nature of computer programs, at odds with the sui generis classification in SA copyright law, causes overbroad protection and violates the idea/expression separation. In light of the technical review of decompilation, it is found that the legal basis for prohibiting decompilation as a form of infringement is narrower than commonly assumed and that copyright law principles should be reinterpreted purposefully to permit decompilation. This work advocates that decompilation must be permissible and that an exemption, in SA copyright law, which is limited to decompilation for interoperability alone, is not appropriate in light of the national developmental agenda. Therefore, an alternative exemption is proposed which accommodates the technical reality of decompilation, the public interest in access to ideas and the commercial interests of copyright owners. This approach is supported by an analysis of international copyright law and is based on the inherent flexibilities of the three-step test. The justification for the findings of this work and the proposed departure from foreign precedent is supported by a close examination of the effect of a limited decompilation exception in foreign law and the impact of legislative measures to restrict circumvention of technological protection measures.

Le principe de territorialité domine la matière de la propriété intellectuelle et en particulier celle du droit d’auteur. Si ce principe et la règle de conflit qu’il inspire, la lex loci protectionis, constituaient de véritables avancées à la fin du XIXème s., de nos jours, ils peinent à convaincre. En effet, le principe de territorialité qui est rattachable au principe de souveraineté dans sa dimension de régulation de l’ordre juridique interne subit de multiples remises en cause. Or, en raison de l’intensification des échanges transnationaux, de l’extension des marchés, de la montée des pouvoirs privés économiques, de l’exploitation dématérialisée des œuvres et notamment, la possibilité de les diffuser sur des réseaux mondiaux comme internet, la souveraineté tend à perdre en puissance. Cela oblige à questionner la pertinence d’un rattachement territorial vis-à-vis de réalités a-territoriales. Le maintien tel quel du principe de territorialité, en termes de conflit de lois, atteint alors la sécurité juridique et les attentes légitimes des parties. Le parti pris de ces travaux est celui d’une réévaluation. Il ressort en effet que le recul dans les relations transnationales du principe de souveraineté - qui sous-tend le principe de territorialité - devrait se traduire sur le plan de la règle de conflit, par un recul de ladite territorialité. A rebours de la tendance générale qui consacre l’hégémonie de la lex loci protectionis, les présents travaux proposent d’une part, d’en circonscrire la compétence dans les domaines où le principe de territorialité ne s’impose pas comme une nécessité, et d’autre part de réorienter le rattachement de manière à limiter la concurrence des lois applicables. Il s’agit, en d’autres termes, de réserver une place à l’universalisme compris comme un rempart contre la variabilité du droit applicable et l’insécurité juridique que cette variabilité pourrait emporter.