Kazakhstan News Archives
February 23, 2012
Kazakhstan Ratifies Rome Convention
The Kazakhstan parliament has recently adopted the Law on Ratification of the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations.
The law was drafted in line with Kazakhstan’s duties as part of the customs union and single market it formed with Russia and Belarus in 2010. As part of the agreement, Kazakhstan is required to join the Rome Convention. Russia and Belarus are already among the 91 contracting parties.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional.
Source: Trend, Azerbaijani news agency; WIPO
September 23, 2011
Kazakhstan Cyrillic Domain Passes ICANN String Evaluation
On September 8, 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that Kazakhstan has successfully passed the second stage in the process of obtaining a Cyrillic country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .қаз (kaz).
Kazakhstan is now awaiting the final step in the process, the domain delegation.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: ICANN
Kazakhstan Accedes to Patent Law Treaty
On July 19, 2011, Kazakhstan deposited its instrument of accession to the Patent Law Treaty, which will enter into force in Kazakhstan on October 19, 2011.
The treaty, adopted in Geneva on June 1, 2000, is designed to harmonize and streamline formal procedures set by national or regional patent offices for the filing and maintenance of patents.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: WIPO
July 25, 2011
Kazakhstan Combats Internet Piracy
The Kazakhstan government and the state Internet association have recently initiated a debate regarding the copyright protection online. On April 29, 2011, a special roundtable was organized for lawyers and industry representatives, during which the authorities presented the “three strikes method” they plan to use to combat online piracy.
“Kaznet (.kz domain) is stuffed with plagiarism, pirated texts, music, photos and videos, with ubiquitous violations of copyrights. We shall punish the violators with a ‘three strikes method’, where strike 1 is a notification, strike 2 is a warning and strike 3 is subject to a criminal case. We believe this is the most acceptable method for our market,” stated Shavqat Sabirov, president of the Internet Association of Kazakhstan.
Many Internet users and bloggers oppose this approach, arguing that Kaznet only exists in cyberspace thanks to the pirated content and that by shutting down all websites with such content Kazakhstan will not solve the problem, but encourage owners to switch to .org or .com domains.
The state authorities excluded the top website representatives from their debate claiming that the roundtable organizer forbade their presence. To strike back, on May 30, 2011, the Internet community wrote a letter addressing the prime minister, the government and the Kazakhstan Internet Association, claiming that the state’s method of suppressing Internet piracy will force users to abandon the .kz domain and that as a result it will become less competitive. Moreover, the Internet community representatives demanded a two-year freeze on the copyright legislation changes.
While many Internet users support the Internet community’s proposal, others think that it is ridiculous to expect that the government will keep tolerating copyright law violations for another two years just to keep Kaznet alive. Instead, some users believe that the Internet community should push for a legislation change that would provide a legal framework for online activities.
The debate is still ongoing.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Global Voices Online, international community of bloggers
June 21, 2011
Kazakh PTO Launches Online Application System
The Kazakh PTO has recently introduced the online application system and on May 19, 2011 received the first electronic application for the registration of a trademark.
Considering that the online application system is currently on a trial period, the applicants are advised to also file their documents in hard copy until further notice.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: The Kazak PTO
April 27, 2011
Kazakhstan Adopts PLT Ratification Law
On March 25, 2011, the Kazakhstan parliament adopted the Law on Ratification of the Patent Law Treaty (PLT).
Amirkhan Amanbayev, Kazakhstan deputy minister of justice, presented the new law to the parliament stressing that the country’s accession to the PLT, expected to happen soon, will simplify patent protection across member states by harmonizing national and international procedural requirements.
The PLT was adopted in Geneva on June 1, 2000 and it has 27 contracting states.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kazakhstan PTO
March 24, 2011
Kazakhstan New Regulations on Protection of Unpublished Works
On October 14, 2010, the Kazakhstan Ministry of Justice issued Order No. 279 regulating the protection of unpublished works, specifically the delivery, acceptance and storage of unpublished manuscripts.
According to the paragraph 3 of the Order, the Order entered into force ten calendar days after its first publication, which was on January 12, 2011 in the national newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
The new regulations were drafted in accordance with the Kazakhstan Law on Copyright and Related Rights and aim to prevent misuse and misappropriation of unpublished works.
The justice ministry has appointed the Committee for Intellectual Property Rights as the authority responsible for protection of unpublished works.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kazakhstan PTO
February 23, 2011
Kazakhstan Accedes to Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol
On February 9, 2011, Kazakhstan deposited its instrument of accession to the Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol.
The WIPO-administered treaty, adopted in Nairobi on September 26, 1981, will enter into force in Kazakhstan on March 9, 2011.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: WIPO
January 20, 2011
Kazakhstan Drafts Two New IP Laws
On December 30, 2010, the drafts for two new laws have been submitted to the Kazakh parliament for adoption - the Law on Ratification of the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and the Law on Introducing Amendments to Intellectual Property Legislation.
The PLT is designed to harmonize and streamline formal procedures set by national or regional patent offices for the filing and maintenance of patents.
The amendments to IP legislation aim to speed up the industrial property application process and bring the Kazakh IP legislation in line with international standards.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kazakh PTO
December 21, 2010
Kazakhstan Establishes NGO for Copyright Protection
A non-governmental organization (NGO) for copyright protection, Copyright Society Abyroi, has been recently established in Kazakhstan, stated the organization’s chairman Temirlan Tulegenov on November 30, 2010.
The NGO will help increase the protection of the rights of composers, poets, writers, artists, scientists, journalists and other rights holders, stated Tulegenov, adding that Kazakhstan has an extremely high piracy rate of 70 percent.
Tulegenov stated that before the establishment of the NGO, there was only one copyright protection organization in the country, the Kazakhstan Copyright Society. He added that the improved protection of copyright and related rights is crucial for the process of Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), expected to take place in 2012.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Chinese news agency Xinhua
October 20, 2010
Kazakhstan Accedes to Madrid Protocol
On September 8, 2010, Kazakhstan deposited its instrument of accession to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, adopted in Madrid on June 27, 1989. The Madrid Protocol will enter into force in Kazakhstan on December 8, 2010.
Kazakhstan signed the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks on December 25, 1991.
The WIPO-administered Madrid System for the international registration of marks is applicable among the countries party to the Madrid Agreement or the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Agreement and Madrid Protocol are parallel but independent treaties, with different but overlapping membership.
An International Registration under the Madrid System gives a trademark owner the possibility of registration in more than 80 countries by filing one application with a single Office, in one language, with one set of fees in one currency (Swiss francs). An application is filed on the basis of a national application or registration.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: WIPO
September 21, 2010
Kazakhstan Roundtable on Copyright and Related Rights
On August 26, 2010, the Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan presented its achievements in the first half of 2010 during the roundtable on copyright and related rights.
In the first six months of 2010, the Committee registered 1,131 compositions, which is a 29 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The number of inspections has increased and the authorities seized 63,000 illegal copies of various content worth approximately EUR 120,000 (USD 153,000).
127 people or entities were held responsible for violating the law on copyright and related rights. The majority of the violations consisted of illegal use of audiovisual materials and phonograms.
The deputy chair of the Committee stressed that the amount of piracy has become equivalent to the amount of illegal trafficking of drugs and weapons, and that unless the authorities and interested parties join efforts in safeguarding copyright and related rights, adequate law enforcement will be impossible.
For more information, please contact Masa Lopicic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kazakh National IP Institute
October 25, 2007
Kazakhstan Amends Intellectual Property Law
On March 02, 2007 the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan passed Law No. 237, amending the existing Intellectual Property Legislation. Specifically, the existing procedure for obtaining protection for inventions and industrial designs will be simplified and faster.
According to the new amendments, legal protection for inventions will be carried out through the filing of an application for innovation protection or through filing of an application for protection of an alternative process or invention with a possibility of mutual transformation.
As stated above, the new Law supports the acceleration of issuing patents. It also provides to patent owners a full protection of their technical devises and the possibility of obtaining timely licensing for technologies.
Several amendments were also introduced in Trademark Law.
- Conditions governing re-registration of the Trademark.
When the term of the trademark registration expires, that trademark may not be re-registered in the name of a person other than the previous owner for a period of one year following the date on which the term of the registration ended. This condition shall also apply where the trademark owner has renounced the trademark prior to the expiration of the registration term.
Previous legislation allowed a period of three years following the date on which the term of the registration ended.
- Non-use grace period
Any interested party may file with Kazpatent a request for the trademark registration cancellation where the trademark has not been used in the three years following the registration date or in the five years preceding the filing date of the cancellation request. The request may relate to all or part of the goods specified in the certificate of registration and shall be considered by the Board of Appeals within six months following the date of its receipt.
Previous legislation allowed cancellation requests when the trademark has not been used in the five years following the registration date.
For more information please contact Anastasia Tokar.