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IP IN THE NEW/FUTURE MEMBER STATES WHAT THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SAYS. Dr. Jürgen Brandstätter Presentation for the Balkan Legal Forum Sofia, 15-17/09/2004. page 1. www.bma-law.com.
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IP IN THE NEW/FUTURE MEMBER STATESWHAT THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SAYS Dr. Jürgen Brandstätter Presentation for the Balkan Legal Forum Sofia, 15-17/09/2004 page 1 www.bma-law.com
• Brief presentation of the main results of the Commission reports Possible discussion: • What is true/false ? • What progress has been achieved since the date of their publication (5/11/2003)? page 2 www.bma-law.com
Terminology • New member states: Comprehensive monitoring reports (05/11/2003) • Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey: Regular Reports on Progress towards Accession (05/11/2003) • Croatia: Opinion on the application of Croatia for the membership of the EU (20/04/2004) page 3 www.bma-law.com
Common results of the Monitoring reports: • mention of transitional rules in relation to pharmaceutical product patents (Community exhaustion) and the CTM • high levels of piracy in most of the new Member States • enforcement of IP rights has to be strengthened page 4 www.bma-law.com
ESTONIA • meets its commitments only partially • information society directive not transposed • WIPO “Internet” treaties not ratified • “fight against piracy and counterfeiting appears to no longer have sufficient priority” page 5 www.bma-law.com
LATVIA • meets the majority of the commitments • acquis remaining to be transposed: information society directive, design, legal protection of biotechnological inventions page 6 www.bma-law.com
LITHUANIA • legislation is close to full alignment • adoption of principle of EC exhaustion of rights still pending • preparations of EPO accession have to be completed page 7 www.bma-law.com
POLAND • legislation largely in line with the acquis • (partially) remaining to be transposed: Community design, geographical indications, information society rules • accession to European Patent Convention is pending page 8 www.bma-law.com
CZECH REPUBLIC • meets the majority of its commitments • further alignment necessary regarding the information society directive • Trademark Act remains to be adopted page 9 www.bma-law.com
SLOVAKIA • largely meets its commitments • information society directive remains to be transposed page 10 www.bma-law.com
HUNGARY • meets the majority of its commitments • further alignment is needed with regard to information society directive and directive on broadcasting via satellite • legislation on supplementary certificates for pharmaceuticals and plant protection products should be adopted • length of court proceedings should be reduced page 11 www.bma-law.com
SLOVENIA • essentially meets its commitments • minor adjustments necessary regarding information society and satellite broadcasting directive page 12 www.bma-law.com
MALTA • broadly aligned its legislation with the acquis • remaining to be transposed/adopted: exceptions to the rights, exhaustion and revival of term, information society directive, provisions on inter-Member State retransmission via cable, biotechnological inventions, legal protections of designs • accession to EPO pending page 13 www.bma-law.com
CYPRUS • majority of commitments have been met • full alignment necessary regarding exceptions to the rights, term of protection and exhaustion • full transposition of information society directive must be completed page 14 www.bma-law.com
BULGARIA • IP law largely in line with the acquis • adoption of legislation regarding supplementary protection certificates for medical products, plant protection products and biotechnological inventions necessary • high level of piracy gives rise to concerns, but IP enforcement is improving page 15 www.bma-law.com
ROMANIA • important aspects of the acquis remain to be transposed • examples: protection of databases including sui generis protection, artists’ resale rights, information society directive • administrative capacity is insufficient to ensure effective enforcement of IP rights page 16 www.bma-law.com
TURKEY • no particular developments towards alignment with acquis since early 2002 • further alignment necessary in nearly all IP fields • high level of IP infringements and low number of court cases • excessive delays in reaching a verdict page 17 www.bma-law.com
CROATIA • Legislation broadly in line with the acquis • Office for Intellectual Property seriously understaffed • Growing backlog in the processing of patent applications due to complex and lengthy procedures page 18 www.bma-law.com
USEFUL LINK: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/candidate.htm page 19 www.bma-law.com
Thank you for your attention! page 20 www.bma-law.com