February 17, 2020

WIPO reports that the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances gained a key 30th member, allowing entry into force of the international agreement designed ultimately to improve earning conditions for actors and other audiovisual performers vital to the films and television shows beloved by viewing publics worldwide.

With the ratification of Indonesia on 28 January 2020, the Beijing Treaty will enter into force for its 30 contracting parties on 28 April 2020. WIPO member states approved the Treaty in 2012 at a Diplomatic Conference hosted by the Chinese Government in Beijing, from where the Treaty takes its name.

The Beijing Treaty deals with the intellectual property rights of performers in audiovisual performances, notably by bolstering five kinds of exclusive economic rights for the beneficiaries’ performances fixed in an audiovisual format: the rights of reproduction, distribution, rental, making available, and broadcasting and communication to the public.

By joining the Treaty, its members agree to adopt, in accordance with their legal systems, the measures necessary to ensure the application of the Treaty. In particular, each contracting party must ensure that enforcement procedures are available under their laws, permitting effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by the Treaty. The action must include expeditious remedies to prevent and defer infringement.

WIPO says that the Beijing Treaty modernises and updates for the digital era the protection for singers, musicians, dancers and actors in audiovisual performances contained in the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (1961). These updates for the digital era complement the provisions in the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), which updated protections for performers other than audiovisual performers and for producers of phonograms. To read WIPO’s press release in full, click here.