This paper examines the case of Al-Toqi v Ministry of Commerce and Industry, one of the few publicly available copyright-related decisions by the courts of the Sultanate of Oman. The case involved the unauthorised use of photographs by the Omani government itself, and the Omani courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court, held that no copyright infringement took place for different reasons. The case demonstrates that even though Oman has been a member of the World Trade Organisation and a United States free trade partner for over a decade, its legal system is still not capable of ensuring the protection of the most basic rights of authors under copyright law.
This paper examines the case of Al-Toqi v Ministry of Commerce and Industry, one of the few publicly available copyright-related decisions by the courts of the Sultanate of Oman. The case involved the unauthorised use of photographs by the Omani government itself, and the Omani courts at all leve...