Intellectual Property Law in Civil and Criminal areas

On November 29-30 2019, Academy of Justice in cooperation and support of the GIZ European Integration Process Support Project, organized a training on “Intellectual property in civil and criminal law areas”.

First day of this training covered the following: the system of intellectual property rights in the Republic of Kosovo;

Industrial property rights with particular emphasis on trademarks - registration and acquisition of rights, EU legislation and perspective; Trademarks according to the legislation of the Republic of Kosovo; Interim measures in civil procedure and remedies for protection of copyrights, as well as court cases of the EU Court of Justice in the process of trademark registration and related to infringements of their rights (administrative and civil areas).

Second day elaborated on: Criminal liability for infringement of industrial property rights - copyright in EU countries for infringement of copyright and legislation of the Republic of Kosovo; violations on internet and industrial property rights, as well as online infringements and copyrights as well as case law examples.

Beginning of this training emphasized that protection of trademarks in the republic of Kosovo is guaranteed by the Law on trade marks, the Criminal Code and with other administrative measures, including the custom acts. Nevertheless, legal practice faces difficulties in application of legal provisions and ensuring effective protection. It further highlighted that, the number of disputes related to trademarks in national courts is significant, and with a growing tendency, therefore focus on this topic was useful for extending the judges and prosecutors knowledge in this area.  According to international standards particularly those set forth in the TRIPS agreement and in EU Directives, the states must provide and easy, effective and inexpensive remedies for the holders who seek protection of the rights before the judiciary.

In relation to the copyright, the training emphasized that based on the Bern Convention – one of the main international conventions on copyrights - The work of the author is considered literary and artistic work, which includes any production of scientific, literary and artistic domain, in any form of expression. This definition allows maneuvering space for States Parties to the Convention to determine what are protected works, and the conditions which an offense must meet in order to enjoy protection. According to our legislation, the works of the author are original intellectual creations in the field of literature, science and art and are expressed in any form.

This training used methods of partial theoretical explanation, examples from case law, exercises, interactive discussions, training handouts, case analysis and international and European standards in this field. All of this was followed by presentation of cases from the EU Court of Justice and national courts practice

Beneficiaries of this training were judges from Commercial Departments of the Appeals Court and of the Prishtina Basic Courts, as well as judges and prosecutors of the criminal law area who handle cases of the financial crimes nature, with focus on trademarks and the copyright cases.