Changes in the EAEU Treaty were presented at "Atameken"

8378 просмотров

A round table on exemption from the application of the principle of regional exhaustion for trademark rights was held at NCE

The roundtable was attended by representatives of the business community and state bodies: the Ministries of Justice, Health and Social Development, Investment and Development, Finance (SRC). The Ministry of National Economy and Agriculture did not attend the event.

At the meeting was discussed the draft Protocol amending the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union dated by May 29, 2014 and the issue of exemptions from the application of the principle of regional exhaustion of trademark rights.

As it is known, currently in the Eurasian Economic Union there is a regional principle of exhaustion of the exclusive rights for objects of intellectual property, which allows you to enter into circulation products in the territory of any Member State of the Union by the right holder of the trademark or with the consent of other persons.

Thus, imports of original goods without the consent of the right holder (parallel imports) is prohibited.

The acting regional principle in EAEU allows for the right holder's request to restrict competition between sellers of goods, marked with a trademark that leads to the establishment of monopolistic (unjustifiably high) commodity prices.

The negative consequences have affected the largest mining and smelting enterprises, the market of medical devices and medical equipment, spare parts for cars, consumer goods and others.

In this connection, in 2014 the National Chamber has taken the initiative to move to an international principle of exhaustion of rights on all the commodity markets, with the exception of markets with localized production. This proposal stipulated transition to the international principle of exhaustion of rights with the possibility to import original products by third parties without the permission of the trademark holder, except for those products with the trademarks, production of which is carried out directly on the territory of the EAEU.

As a result of discussions of the proposal of the National Chamber at the site of the Eurasian Economic Commission, it was decided to establish for certain types of goods exemption from the regional principle of a trade mark, to the trade mark of EAEU (Order of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council number 6 dated by 13.04.2016).

Regional principle with exemption means that the products, except those included in the list of exemptions are freely traded within the Union only with the consent of the owner. In this case the goods included in the list of exemptions are subject to the import and sale on the territory of the EAEU without the consent of the copyright holder.

On the basis of earlier agreements in the framework of the EAEU, it is planned to include in the list of exemptions goods that are not available on the domestic market of the Union, or available in insufficient quantities, at inflated prices, and based on the national interests of the Member States.

The representatives of the National Chamber presented the changes to the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union (revised EEC) in cooperation with businesses and state bodies discussed the preliminary position of the Republic of Kazakhstan (edition of the Ministry of Justice of RK) and proposals of the National Chamber of the Draft Protocol on amendments to the Treaty on the EAEU.

Business community is greatly concerned by procedure developed by the Eurasian Economic Commission for the establishment, renewal and early termination of the exemptions for the application of the principle of exhaustion of the exclusive right to the trademark, the trademark EAEU in respect of certain goods.

According to the opinion of the business community, it is not possible to carry out analysis of the market of goods in respect of which it is proposed to establish exemptions to the application of the principle of regional exhaustion of rights (markets of Kazakhstan, the Member States of the Union and third countries), which casts doubt on the possibility of establishing exemptions.

As a result of discussions it was decided to further develop the Protocol and Procedure for making comments and suggestions.

At the round table meeting were also discussed proposals of the business community to establish exemptions for the application of the principle of regional exhaustion of trademark rights, which have affected the scope of medical equipment, machinery and equipment for the mining industry, spare parts for cars.

Following the discussions, it decided to organize at the site of the National Chamber a meeting with the participation of producers, importers and right holders.

You can review the materials of the round table meeting here.