At present, the state regulation of the protection of intellectual property is performed by the State Service if Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Finances and Economy following the Resolution of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov from March 1, 2013.
The Service is specialized department with qualified specialists in the sphere of legal protection of intellectual property. Regulating property and non-property relations appearing in the result of protection activity of intellectual property, it plays an important role in the establishment of strong and stable economy of Turkmenistan.
The Constitution of Turkmenistan, the Civil Code, the Laws on Legal Protection of Inventions and legal Protection of Industrial Samples, on Trademarks, Service Marks and Place of Origin of Goods, On Legal Protection of Algorithms, Software, Database and Topology of Integrated Circuits, on Legal Protection of New Varieties of Plants, on Copyright and Related Rights and other laws are the main legislation base for the protection of intellectual property.
All above-mentioned documents contain legal standards related to the protection of intellectual property, regulate the rights of legal entities and individuals for intellectual property.
Turkmenistan has pre-trial and judicial methods of the solution of the disputes in intellectual property sphere. For example, the laws related to intellectual property contain the standards of dealing with disputes related to the breaching of the owners’ rights by the application to the court of appeal or judicial authorities.
It is worth making special mention that the legislation of Turkmenistan has the penalties for violations of the rights of the owners of intellectual property, which are contend in the Criminal Code, Administrative Violations Code, Custom Code and others documents.
Specialists of the Service do the works related with the provision of legal protection of industrial property like inventions, industrial samples, trademarks and places of the origin of goods, new varieties of plants as well as the copyrights including the algorithms and software as well as carry out other activity such as admission and expertise of the applications, issue of sentences and protection documents, registration of intellectual property, contracts and agreements on transfer of the owner’s rights on patents and trademarks in the state register, etc.
Significant step on cooperation with foreign states has been made for the period of work of national system of intellectual property which allowed the country integrating to international patent system in the sphere of industrial property.
In 1994, Turkmenistan has joined the Eurasian Patent Convention.
In 1995, Turkmenistan has signed the declaration of continuation of the membership in three international agreements the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) of July 14, 1967, edited on October 2, 1979; Paris Convention on Protection of Industrial Property from March 20, 1883, reviewed on July 14, 1967 and edited on October 2, 1979; Agreement of Patent Cooperation from June 19, 1970, edited on October 2, 1979 and amended on February 3, 1984.
An act of accession of Turkmenistan to the Protocol of the Madrid Treaty on International Registration of Trademarks from June 27, 1989 has been signed in June 1999.
Turkmenistan has joined the agreements establishing the main International Classifications including the Strasburg Treaty on International Patent Classification (1971), Locarno Treaty on International Classification of Industrial Patterns (1968), Nice Treaty on International Classification of Goods and Services for Registration of the Trademarks (1975), Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (1974).
In 2015, Turkmenistan has joined the Geneva Act of the Hague Treaty on International registration of Industrial Pattern (1999) and Nairobi Treaty on Protection of the Olympic Symbols and in 2016, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
The industrial patterns are worth to be mentioned among the intellectual property mentioned above.Human fantasy has no limits in this sphere of intellectual property.People make new design every day.
There is a legal protection of industrial patterns the results of creative thinking of people in the sphere of creative construction, in order to give the right to use new idea unilaterally.
Industrial patterns are understood as creative graphic presentation or aesthetic component of the production, using which the item acquires the exterior and consumer attractiveness increasing its commercial cost and possibility of sale.
Owner of Industrial pattern can provide himself with the exclusive right to protect it only if it is registered. Besides, this measure promotes the income of the finance invested to the industrial pattern as well as provides good competition allowing the consumer choosing the best goods.
Normally, the protection of industrial sample is limited by the territory of the contry providing such protection,
Before the adoption of two laws of Turkmenistan on Legal Protection of Inventions and on Legal Protection of Industrial Patterns on November 4, 2017, legal protection of these two industrial properties was provided by the Law of Turkmenistan on Inventions and Industrial Patterns adopted on October 23, 2008.
The necessity of adoption of new laws for the implementation on international standards to Turkmenistan legislation in the sphere of industrial property appears after the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on International Registration of Industrial Patterns on the territory of Turkmenistan came into force on March 16, 2016.
It is worth mentioning that new Law of Turkmenistan on Legal Protection of Industrial Patterns has been significantly amended taking into account the requirements of the above-mentioned agreement.
The Resolution of the President of Turkmenistan of July 5, 2018 authorises the Order of Payment and Duty Drawback for Activities related to Inventions, the List of Activities related with Inventions on which the Duties are Charged and the Amount of such Duties, Order of Payment and Drawbacks for Activity Related to Industrial Patterns and the List of Activities Related with Industrial Patterns on which Duties are Charged and Amount of Such Duties for the regulation of the issues of industrial properties according to new Laws of Turkmenistan on Legal Protection of Inventions and on Legal Protection of Industrial Patterns.
It is worth mentioning that new document related to industrial patterns also comprehensively meets the requirements of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on International Registration of Industrial Samples.
The document has new activities related to industrial samples, which are charged. It also stipulates the duties charged to foreign citizens in foreign currency. The benefits for some people have also been amended.
Speaking more in details about the Agreement on International Registration of Industrial Patterns, which administration functions are carried out by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the following order of international registration is offered:
An applicant is entitled to have the protection of industrial patterns in the countries he chose or in all countries participating in the Hague Agreement by the application via national authority or via the WIPO.
Therefore, paying one state fee and single application, the applicant is entitled to have the protection of industrial pattern in several countries, having saved money and time as the application for the registration of industrial pattern in other country is possible only through the patent representative of the country where the protection is required.
The Hague system of international registration of industrial patterns is applied by the countries participating in the Hague Agreement.
International registration in every country is the same as if the pattern would be deposited in each country except the cases when competent authority of certain country rejects the protection.
The Hague system also simplifies the management of industrial patterns as it gives the opportunity to register of further changes or to extend the deposit by simple procedure made in international bureau of the WIPO.
The advantage of receiving the patent according to the Hague Agreement is that it is not necessary to have legal protection of the pattern in home country for receiving the patent in the countries of the Hague system. However, there are some limitations of the system you cannot add new countries where you wish to deposit your industrial pattern.
Any resident of participating country of the above-mentioned agreement is entitled to be an applicant.
Legal protection of industrial patterns means that such pattern cannon be copied or imitated without the permission of the owner and the copies and imitations can to be sold or imported without such permission. The document certifying the rights for industrial sample are called the certificate of registration or a patent.
Protection of the rights on industrial patterns encourages the creativity and stimulates the development of industry. protection of industrial samples not only supports the achievements of common goals of development of the country it has the interest for the industry, developing companies and consumers.
As industrial sample is designated to satisfy the aesthetic requirements, it is equalized to the items of visual art, which legal protection is carried out according to the standards of the copyright.
The difference is that during the evaluation of the appearance of industrial sample, its aesthetic image that received technical application is taken into account unlike its creative value as an art item.
Creative solution of the appearance of industrial pattern is carried out during the production of different construction of the pattern. Therefore, the issue of delineation of industrial patterns and inventions comes in the cases when technical construction may change the appearance of the pattern.
The industrial pattern cannot describe and define the nature, function and method of something (the latter is related to the inventions).
Legal protection of industrial samples is carried out from the moment of creative and constructive formation in objective form and during the legal registration in the state authority as well as during the use of exclusive rights on industrial patterns and regulation of such rights.
The ownership of the property is protected by the state and certified by the patent on industrial pattern according to the legislation of Turkmenistan.
It is worth mentioning that documents adopted on July 5, 2018 allow national applicants receiving the ownership rights on their industrial patterns in the countries of the Geneva Act of the Hague Treaty on International Registration of Industrial Patterns in easy way.