Intellectual Property In 'Kazakhstan +'

After disintegration of the USSR, business is rapidly

developing in the CIS, one of the key countries of which is

Kazakhstan, where McGuireWoods has established its Central

Asian Office in as early as 1994.

Kazakhstan, bordering with China on the South and with

Russia on the North and being the Central Asian leader in

natural resources and industry, for many companies is a gateway

for business in other Central Asian Republics, such as

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan roughly equal in size to five states of France is

a valuable potential key player in world oil and gas markets,

it is a major world source of coal, copper, iron ore, chromium,

magnesium, lead, zinc, silver, and uranium and has notable

reserves of gold, molybdenum, titanium, and others.

In various cases intellectual property ("IP") is

one of the most important areas for initial entering the market

of the region, and registration of trademarks and patents and

other IP rights is a big step towards the market and wise care

of company' assets even without a physical presence of the

company. Furthermore registration of trademarks and patents is

a must in these countries if your company cares about its trade

name, image and IP value of its assets, as without such a

registration no protection can be gained or IP rights enforced,

which is often necessary in this region.

Kazakhstan is a member of Paris Convention, Madrid

Agreement, PCT, and others. It has developed a system of IP

rights protection, including the Patent Law, Law on Trademarks;

Administrative Code and Criminal Code provide administrative

and criminal liability for infringement of the IP rights.

Kazakhstan is currently facing its domestic market abound

with counterfeit goods, thus intellectual property rights

require effective protection. Law enforcement bodies frequently

encounter relatively good copies of the goods containing IP

belonging to others, however rough fakes also exist. In this

case not only IP are violated, but also the rights of consumers

who purchased goods of poor quality, which may endanger their

health or even life. Other frequent violations in Kazakhstan

are piracy of trademarks and copyrights.

While Kazakhstan legislation provides broad protection to

IP, particular areas remain underdeveloped and enforcement

generally remains a problem.

IP, under Kazakhstan legislation, is (i) an exclusive right

of an individual/company to results of intellectual creative

activities and (ii) means of individualization of a company,

production of an individual/company, works performed or

services rendered thereby (trade name, trademark, service mark,

and appellation of goods origin).

An exclusive right to the result of intellectual property

activity or means of individualization is a property right

of its owner to use the IP object by all means and at his/her

discretion. Other persons would be allowed to use exclusive

rights objects only subject to the owner's consent.

Our practice in Kazakhstan and other CIS countries has shown

that western companies pay very little attention to the

preventive protection of their rights on the new markets,

ignoring to register inventions, and more often trademarks,

well in advance.

In order to protect a trademark or patent from the

infringements, first of all the owner of such IP objects needs

to ensure their appropriate registration. Absence of the

registration can easily permit violation of the IP right.

Foreign individuals or companies may apply for registration

of IP objects only through a registered patent attorney (patent

agent).

Owner's consent is granted by way of either a license

agreement or an assignment agreement. Pursuant to a license

agreement an owner of an exclusive right to results of

intellectual creative activity or means of individualization

(licensor) grants to the other party (licensee) a right to

temporarily use the relevant object of intellectual

property.

The Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the Ministry

of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the "IPR

Committee" or "Kazpatent") is an authorized

state agency for intellectual property matters. The IPR

Committee is responsible for registration of IP objects and

implementation of the state policy in relation to protection of

copyrights, inventions, utility models, industrial designs and

other intellectual property items; issuing copyright, patent

and trademarks certificates, and recognition of marks as

well-known.

National Institute of Intellectual Property

("NIIP") accepts applications for issue of patents

for inventions, utility models, industrial designs, as well as

for registration of trademarks and carries out their expertise,

maintains State IP Registers and arranges official

publications.

In Kazakhstan and some other CIS countries IP rights also

enjoy protection of customs authorities, which...