CAIRO: The resignation of Egypt’s Culture Minister Gehan Zaki following a final court ruling against her in a copyright infringement case has reignited debate over intellectual property protection in Egypt.
Legal and literary experts said the high-profile case should serve as a catalyst for stronger enforcement of copyright laws across the region.
Zaki resigned last week after Egypt’s Court of Cassation upheld a ruling finding her liable for violating intellectual property rights and imposed a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,000). The court also ordered the withdrawal from circulation of her book “Coco Chanel and Qout Al-Qulub.”
While the case brought an abrupt end to her short tenure as culture minister, experts told Arab News the controversy exposed longstanding challenges in protecting authors’ rights in Egypt and across the Middle East.
Mohamed Aboulghar, an Egyptian writer and professor, told Arab News that the case highlighted a broader problem affecting the publishing industry.
“Copyright infringement poses a significant challenge across the region,” he said. “Many books are plagiarized and even published as though they were original works.”
He stressed that laws must be enforced against those who violate intellectual property rights to protect literary works.
Quotation and citation are governed by clear academic and literary standards that writers must respect.
“There are rules and limits to quoting from other works,” he said. “Original sources must always be acknowledged to protect the rights of authors.”
The minister’s dispute dates back to 2025, when journalist and researcher Soheir Abdel Hamid filed a lawsuit before Egypt’s Economic Court, accusing Zaki of infringing the intellectual property rights to her book “Lady of the Palace: The Assassination of Qut Al-Qulub Al-Damardashiya.”
In a statement issued after the ruling, Zaki said she respected the decisions of the Egyptian judiciary and had submitted her resignation.
She added that she would continue pursuing all legal avenues available to her, including filing a petition for reconsideration of the judgments where permitted by law, stressing that exercising her legal rights did not conflict with respecting judicial rulings.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly accepted the resignation, thanking Zaki for her service and wishing her success in her future endeavors.
Aboulghar called on book fairs and publishing bodies to strengthen their review processes to prevent plagiarized works from reaching the market.
“Despite advances in digital publishing, demand for printed books remains strong,” he said. “Publishers and organizers of book fairs should ensure that the books they exhibit are original rather than copied from other authors.”
Aboulghar noted that technological advances, particularly artificial intelligence-powered tools, have made detecting plagiarism significantly easier.
“Technology now provides effective means of identifying copied content, making it far more difficult for plagiarism to go unnoticed,” he said.
Lawyer and writer Adham El Aboudi told Arab News that Egyptian authors have several legal avenues to protect their intellectual property before publication.
He said writers should first obtain a deposit number from the National Library and Archives, describing it as an essential step in documenting ownership of a literary work before it is published.
Authors can also register their work with the Publications and Intellectual Property Rights Department at the Supreme Council of Culture or through the Real Estate Registry, he added.
El Aboudi said there is a clear legal distinction between legitimate quotation and plagiarism.
"Quotations are permitted provided they are properly attributed to their original authors and clearly identified," he said. "Plagiarism, on the other hand, involves copying and publishing another person's work without authorization."
He said copyright infringement is punishable under Egyptian law, with cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Economic Court.
"Penalties range from financial compensation to imprisonment, depending on the nature and extent of the infringement," he added.
The minister’s resignation also drew a political response.
Minister of State for Information Diaa Rashwan said Zaki’s decision to step down less than 24 hours after the Court of Cassation issued its final ruling demonstrated respect for the Egyptian judiciary while preserving her personal right to pursue any remaining legal remedies.
