Antimonopoly Committee proposes to increase fines for violation of intellectual rights
The Antimonopoly Committee, together with the Ministry of Justice, will create an independent council that will consider cases of copying someone else’s trademark or other intellectual property. Representatives of the committee reported this during a regular meeting of the discussion platform “Competition 4.0”, Kun.uz correspondent said.
“We are often confronted with the problem of identifying similarities. Intellectual property issues can be challenged indefinitely. Therefore, an independent council is being created, which will include not only government officials, but also independent experts, representatives of the sphere,” deputy chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee Farrukh Karabaev said.
He also noted that the issue of intellectual property protection is acute. Violations of legislation in this sphere in emerging markets like Uzbekistan occur frequently. Local companies are actively replicating global trademarks.
Now the mechanism to combat such offenses allows the Antimonopoly Committee to issue an order to discontinue the proceedings. To do this, the Agency must receive an appeal, which will consider a special internal commission. If it exposes signs of similarity of trademarks, the company copying another brand is given an order to eliminate the violation.
“A question arises: how to deal with a batch of goods that has already been released into circulation, how to seize them? We are working on this issue. Perhaps we will solve it together with the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the Prosecutor General’s Office,” deputy chairman of the Agency said.
The head of the Antimonopoly Committee’s Directorate Dilshod Azimov added that the territorial subdivisions of the Committee will receive copies of directions, which should be distributed to trade enterprises.
For example, in the case of copying a trademark in the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacies will receive a notification stating that it is prohibited to sell a specific drug.
The Committee intends to make changes to the legislation, toughening the responsibility for infringement of intellectual rights, in particular, it is planned to increase penalties. It is proposed to calculate the fine amount based on the production volume of the offending enterprise.
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