Concept Of Property And Intellectual Property In Latvia - Part 1

Contents:

Implementation and development of the intellectual

property

Legislation on the intellectual property –

most important stages of development

Form of protection

Priorities of protection

Rights acquired indirectly

Preconditions of registration

Specifics of the protection process of the intellectual

property

Specialized protection means in the civil

procedure

White areas" in the legislation on the

intellectual property

Application of legal norms on the intellectual

property

Concept of the intellectual property

Piratism

Summary

List of sources

The article deals with the main development stages of the

intellectual property in Latvia. The practical implementation of

the intellectual property started after regaining de facto

independence of Latvia when, as per the decision of the respective

government, preconditions were ensured to re-register those

trademarks in the independent Latvia which were already registered

in the territory of this state according to the USSR legislation.

The Latvian legislation on the intellectual property, in turn,

appeared only shortly after it. The main development stages are

– adopting of the first laws in 1993; legislative

amendments necessary to ensure Latvia's joining the World Trade

Organization (in 1999) and the European Union (in 2004). Conceptual

foundation in legislation has been little changed and they are:

protection of intellectual property based on registration

(registration system); registration is secured after the formal

preconditions for registration are fulfilled. No requirement is set

forth for the expertise of the intellectual property object in

point of fact (patent novelty, confusing similarity between a

trademark and a design with the competing objects). Several types

of intellectual property are not either regulated (domain names,

trade secrets, rights to an image) or else are regulated

insufficiently (sui generis database rights).

The concept of intellectual property in the Latvian law science

was analyzed considerably later – approximately 10 years

after the legislation was enforced regulating individual types of

intellectual property. A narrow understanding of the property still

prevails in the law science and court practice. Intellectual

property is regarded as an incomplete property object by many law

experts. Many types of intellectual property, like domain names,

are contested in the court not to be regarded as property objects.

Such doctrine not only contradicts the already established court

practice, e.g. the practice by the European Court of Human Rights,

but is also putting obstacles to the practical development of the

intellectual property.

1. Implementation and development of the intellectual

property

The h...

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