Elizabeth Lenjo is the chairperson of the Copyright Tribunal, a tribunal that will serve for a period of five years. 

Elizabeth Lenjo as well other tribunal members Helen Kiende, Wilfred Ogot, Caroline Opiyo ‎and Joseph Ndungu took their oath of office at the Supreme Court, Nairobi in the presence of the Chief Justice Martha Koome.‎

The CJ said success of the Copyright Tribunal has an impact on fostering creativity and a bearing on the success of Kenya’s arts and ‎cultural industry. ‎

She added that this is because these ‘post-industrial’ aspects of ‎the economy rely on a vibrant copyright law to establish property rights ‎and protect revenues. ‎

CJ Martha has called on the tribunal to robustly enforce copyright law for our ‎creatives and other authors of different forms of work to earn a living and benefit from their works and innovation.

She urged them to align the operations of the Copyright Tribunal ‎with the ethos of ‘Social Transformation through Access to ‎Justice’ Vision. ‎

‎“By doing this, you play a role in ensuring that our talented and ‎creative artists and authors can make a career, earn a living, and ‎flourish from their work by protecting their intellectual property ‎rights,” the CJ explained. ‎

The Copyright Tribunal is one of the institutions that are ‎intended to further the objectives of Article 40(5) of the ‎Constitution which instructs the State to support, promote and ‎protect the intellectual property rights of the people of Kenya.‎ 

The Tribunal has been sworn into office at a time when the Kenya Copyright Board KECOBO has intensified its efforts to educate the public on intellectual property as well as the laws that govern copyright, particularly towards safeguarding Kenya’s thriving creative industry.

KECOBO has used various channels to educate the particularly the artists be it musicians, authors as Paintings, photographs, drawings, engravings, architecture, maps or handicrafts among others to ensure that they sign contracts when exhibiting their talents, as well as use KECOBO’s online registration platform to register their works for copyright and get a certificate.

According to KECOBO, registering one’s work ensures that there is evidence of ownership of copyright in a court of law in case of a dispute, using the certificate collateral in a bank, makes easy to commercialize copyright and makes it easy for IP auditors or valuers to identify the different IP rights owned by a corporate.

Elizabeth Lenjo’s Bio:

Liz the lawyer

Liz Lenjo is the Founder and Managing Consultant of MYIP Legal Studio. She specializes in Intellectual Property, Entertainment, Media and Fashion Law.  She serves in the Kenya Fashion Council as the Head of Intellectual Property & Policy in the Legal Committee. Liz holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Intellectual Property Law from the University of Turin (Italy) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and Postgraduate Diploma Kenya School of Law. She also holds a Certificate in Fashion Law from Fashion Law Institute – Fordham University Law School (New York).  She also has professional certificates in IP Management, Mediation & Arbitration from WIPO Academy and CopyrightX from HarvardX. 

Liz the teacher

Liz is an adjunct faculty member at the Strathmore University Law School where she teaches Media and Entertainment Law as well as Business Law. She is also a published scholar. Her LL.M research paper has been published by the renowned Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review 2018 titled: “Inspiration versus Exploitation: Traditional Cultural Expressions at the Hem of the Fashion Industry.” The paper is available online on Westlaw and Nexis as well as the Marquette IP Law Review website.

Liz the writer

Liz is a blogger on www.liz lenjo.test on IP and Entertainment Law matters focusing on non-legal minds to understand basic issues on these areas of law.  She is also the Chapter Lead of Creative Commons Kenya and the head of the Culture & Entertainment Platform. Liz has been recognised for her efforts in the legal field and is a recipient of the prestigious nomination: Business Daily Top 40 under 40 Women 2018.