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Law / Ivory Coast

Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act, database compilation protection

Loi n° 2016-555 du 26 juillet 2016 art. 8 (protection des bases de données comme compilations), relative au droit d'auteur et aux droits voisins

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

In force since 26 July 2016.

A database right rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 6 September 2026.

What it requires

  • Treat a database compiled through the choice, coordination or arrangement of its contents as a protected work: do not reproduce all or a substantial part of that arrangement without the rights holder's authorization.
  • Treat the content of a database, and any computer program used to create, run or consult it, as outside that protection, along with bare ideas, facts and data generally.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

Infringing the moral or economic rights the Act defines, including an unauthorized reproduction of a protected database compilation, is punishable by one to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 to 5,000,000 CFA francs, or either penalty alone (art. 138).

Penalty structure

Article 138's fine ceiling for infringing a moral or economic right the Act defines, alongside imprisonment of up to ten years or either penalty alone.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
6 September 2026
Currency
XOF
Fixed cap
5,000,000

What it reaches

Obligation class

Licensing

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Article 8 protects, as an original work, a collection of works or of mere data or facts, such as an encyclopedia, anthology or database, where the choice, coordination or arrangement of its contents constitutes an original work; the same article states that this protection does not extend to a database's own content or to a computer program used to create, operate or consult it.

Article 10 separately excludes ideas, methods, procedures, concepts or information as such, official legislative, administrative or judicial texts, and mere data and facts as such, from copyright protection altogether. Together the two articles give Côte d'Ivoire compilation-only protection for a database's selection or arrangement, with no separate sui generis database right of the kind the European Union recognises, and with the underlying content always open to reuse.

Article 138 makes any infringement of the moral or economic rights the Act defines a criminal offense, punishable by one to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 to 5,000,000 CFA francs, or either penalty alone.

When LexLint raises it

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Read the law

Law No. 2016-555 of 26 July 2016
official French text published in the Journal Officiel de la République de Côte d'Ivoire of 20 October 2016 and reproduced by WIPO Lex

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