Significant changes are being made in the field of intellectual property protection in the legal system of Uzbekistan. This was reported by Upl.uz.
The new law signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on August 8 aims to strengthen responsibility for violations in this area while simplifying the processes for registering rights. According to the official channel of the Ministry of Justice, this law will be an important step in creating favorable conditions for authors, inventors, and rights holders.
The main innovation of the law is the introduction of criminal liability for the use of illegal trademarks. From now on, such actions, as well as violations of property rights related to software, inventions, and industrial designs, will be prosecuted under the Criminal Code.
These changes will come into effect three months after the official announcement, allowing time to adapt to the new rules. Along with the strengthening of criminal liability, administrative penalties have also been revised.
Fines for violations of copyright and related rights will be significantly increased. Additionally, administrative liability has been introduced for violations related to selection results and topologies of integrated circuits.
The justice authorities will now have the right to inspect and confiscate counterfeit products. The procedure for removing counterfeit goods from civil circulation and destroying them has been clearly defined.
Despite the strengthening of liability measures, the new law also aims to simplify the process of registering intellectual property rights. For example, patents and trademarks will automatically be assigned a unique QR code, which will facilitate their validation and use.
Flexibility has also been shown in the payment of state duties. Applicants now have the opportunity to extend the payment deadline by three months, for which they must pay an additional 50 percent of the specified amount.
Furthermore, the requirement to submit a document confirming the payment for the registration of industrial designs has been abolished. The number of documents required for registering new selection results, namely agricultural crops and livestock breeds, has been reduced.
Deadlines for administrative processes have been shortened: the examination of applications for the registration of computer programs and databases should not exceed 10 days, while the expertise for registration as a place of origin of goods will be completed within one month. The first law on copyright protection in the world, the "Statute of Anne," was adopted in Great Britain in 1710.
This law granted authors the right to publish their books for 14 years, and if the author is alive, this period is extended by another 14 years.
