Belarus updates intellectual property legislation

MINSK ( BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed a law designed to streamline administrative procedures related to the legal protection of intellectual property rights, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian leader.

The law shortens the time required to examine applications, issue certificates for trademarks and geographical indications, and register industrial property rights.

It also establishes the procedure for paying remuneration to authors for the use of service-created works of science, inventions, utility models, industrial designs, plant varieties, integrated circuit topologies and trade secrets.

In addition, the law permits the use of musical works, without the consent of copyright holders but subject to the payment of remuneration, in the production and broadcasting of certain television programs included in the mandatory publicly available television package, as well as during major state political, public and cultural events.

The law is intended to systematize the legal framework governing public relations associated with the protection of intellectual property rights.