Intellectual and industrial property in Lithuania

The intellectual and industrial property acquis consists of Council Directives 91/250/EEC, 92/100/EEC, 93/83/EEC, 93/98/EEC and Directive of the European Parliament and the Council 96/9/EC. The acquis of industrial property – Council Directives 87/54/EEC, 89/104/EEC, Directives of the European Parliament and the Council 98/71/EC and 98/44/EC, Council Regulations (EEC) No 1768/92, 40/94, etc.

Protection of intellectual property rights (copyright and neighbouring rights) in Lithuania is governed by the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of 18 May 1999, which is in full compliance with the acquis and the provisions of the multilateral agreements (the Bern and Rome Convention, and WTO TRIPS agreement). All the provisions of the directives of the intellectual property acquis were transposed into this law.

Criminal liability for violations of copyright and related rights is established by Articles 1421, 1422 and 1423 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, and administrative liability – by Article 21410 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Lithuania.

Convention

In the course of reinforcement of copyright protection on the international level, on 14 December 1994, Lithuania acceded to the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Paris document of 1971) and became a member of the Bern Union.. The Bern Convention was ratified by the Law of 28 May 1996. In order to extend the same level of protection to related rights, the law of 22 December 1998 ratified the International Convention for the protection of performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organisations (Rome Convention 1961) which became applicable in Lithuania on 22 July 1999. Thus, by acceding to the Bern Convention and Rome Convention, in 1999 Lithuania fully met the requirements of the Council Resolution of 14 May 1992 on increased protection for copyright and neighbouring rights. On 13 April 1999, Lithuania ratified the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorised Duplication of their Programmes, which entered into force for Lithuania on 27 January 2000.

The protection of industrial property

The protection of industrial property rights in Lithuania is governed by the following acts:

Law on Trademarks and Service Marks (adopted on 3 June 1993 and entering into force on 1 October 1993) is largely in line with the provisions of Council Directive 89/104/EEC;
Law on Patents (adopted on 18 January 1994 and entering into force on 1 February 1994). On 15 June 2000, amendments of this law were adopted to comply with the provisions of the WTO TRIPS on more detailed regulation of exclusive licenses and rights of the owners of patents;
Law on Industrial Designs (adopted on 4 July 1995 and entering into force on 1 September 1995) is largely in line with the provisions of Directive 98/71/EEC. On 11 May 2000, amendments to Article 5 of this law were adopted to comply with the provisions of WTO TRIPS regarding elaboration of the design owner rights.
Law on The Protection of Plant Varieties and Seed Cultivation (adopted on 17 September 1996 and entering into force on 1 January 1997);
Law on Legal Protection of Topographies of Semiconductor Products (adopted on 16 June 1998 and entering into force on 1 December 1998), in line with the provisions of Council Directive 87/54/EEC;
Law on Trade Names (adopted on 1 July 1999 and entering into force on 1 January 2000) in line with the provisions of Council Directive 77/91/EEC regarding trade names;
Regulations of Patent Agents (approved on 20 May 1992 by Government Resolution No 362 of 20 May 1992);
Government Resolution No 163 of 12 March 1993 on Stamp Duty, establishing stamp duty for the legal acts and documents issued by the State Patent Bureau;
Article 308 of the Criminal Code (establishes criminal liability for the infringement of the rights of the owner of the mark).

International level

Seeking to secure industrial property rights on the international level, Lithuania has become a member of the following international agreements:

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (from 22 May 1994);
Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation (from 30 April 1992);
Patent Co-operation Treaty (from 5 July 1994);
Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (from 22 February 1997);
Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (from 15 November 1997);
Trademark Law Treaty and Regulations (from 27 April 1998);
Budapest Treaty on International Recognition of the Deposit Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (from 9 May 1998);
Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the European patent Organisation on Co-operation in the Field of Patents (from 25 January 1994) and Agreement Implementing Article 3(3) of the Co-operation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the European Patent Organisation (from 5 July 1994).

In implementation of the Europe Agreement, Lithuania undertook to accede to Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. Since Lithuania has acceded to a more modern international agreement establishing international registration of marks, i.e. Madrid Protocol, Lithuania is not making steps to accede to this Agreement.

In order to achieve

In order to achieve full compliance of the national industrial property legislation with the acquis, the adoption of the following legal acts is on the agenda:

New version of the Law on Trademarks which will lead to compliance with First Council Directive 89/104/EEC to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks, except for provisions of Article 4(2)(a)(i) and 4(3) in relation to earlier Community trade marks. This law is expected to be adopted and enter into force by the end of 2000;
New version of the Law on Patents which will lead to compliance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products, Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions and Regulation (EC) No 1610/96 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products. Adoption of this law is foreseen for the year 2001;
Law amending the Law on Industrial Designs which will lead to compliance with Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning legal protection of industrial designs. Amendments to this law are expected to be adopted and enter into force by the end of 2002;
Law on the Protection of Plant Varieties in line with Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 on Community plant variety rights and International Convention on Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Geneva 1991 Act). Adoption of this law is envisaged before mid 2001, and ratification of the aforementioned Convention in 2002.

Aiming to build an effective legal framework

Aiming to build an effective legal framework for the protection of intellectual property and industrial property rights, Lithuania has already drafted and has scheduled to adopt in 2000 the Law on the protection of intellectual property in the field of imports and exports which will be in compliance with Council Regulation (EC) No 3295/94, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1367/95, provisions of the WTO Agreement on the aspects of trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS requirements).

On 20 April 2000, the Seimas adopted the Laws amending the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure which lay down criminal liability for violations of intellectual and industrial property rights.

Full compliance of the national law with the intellectual and industrial property acquis is envisaged in 2002.

As regards Article 4(2)(a)(i) of Council Directive 89/104/EEC, Lithuania’s position is that only those Community trade marks which will be registered after Lithuania’s accession will be able to claim seniority, based on earlier date of application and contest the national registration of trademarks valid in the Republic of Lithuania. Thus, in the case of Lithuania, the provisions of the aforementioned directive concerning Community trademark seniority will come into force from the date of its accession into the EU.