OREANDA-NEWS. October 17, 2014. The draft law "On introducing amendments and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues of legal regulation of intellectual property" was approved in first reading at the plenary session of the Majilis.

"The purpose of the bill is simplification of registration procedure, fixing legal gaps and exclusion of rules creating administrative barriers in the field of intellectual property," Minister of Justice Berik Imashev said presenting the bill.

According to him, amendments to the field of copyright aimed at specification of the activities of collective organizations. In order to avoid misuse by collective organizations, it is offered to set maximum rate of subtrahend from collected fees for an organization to cover actual costs for collection, distribution and payment of compensation - no more than 30% of collected fees.

The bill includes amendments concerning mandatory publication of annual reports of collective organizations, submitted to an authorized body, on the Internet resources of organizations and the national media, as well as competence of authorized body for approval of the report form. A procedure of excluding works and objects of related rights from permissions granted by user-organization is being specified. Qualification requirements for a collective organization applying for accreditation, as well as grounds for withdrawal of the certificate of accreditation are being specified.

The bill supplements cases of using works freely; in particular reproduction of copies of the work by libraries and archives with their transfer to digital format to replace lost or damaged copies. A standard, allowing to restore the terms of payment for maintenance of a patent for a selection achievement by analogy with patent for invention and utility model has been provided.
From the list of actions proving use of a trademark, it is proposed to exclude transfer of trademark rights, since fictitious contracts of transfer of rights are sometimes shown as an evidence of such "use".

The bill also contains a number of amendments related to trademarks, patents and other issues. In order to harmonize the national legislation of Kazakhstan and the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, innovative patent is excluded from the list of protection instruments of rights for industrial property in the Republic of Kazakhstan.