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.

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...