Judicial protection of exclusive rights to intellectual property: national and foreign experience

The article examines national and foreign experience in judicial protection of exclusive rights to intellectual property. The role and specificity of judicial protection, the legal framework regulating this sphere, the effectiveness of national legislation, relevance to the judiciary, judicial statistics in this matter, case law and the experience of foreign countries are analyzed in order to come up with the methods of protection of exclusive rights to intellectual property.

The socio-economic and legal consequences of the settlement of intellectual property disputes are presented as one of the most pressing issues in the work of the courts in the light of the fact that the issue of intellectual property rights is becoming a serious social problem in Uzbekistan and all around the world.

Based on in-depth analysis of the world experience on how the issue of jurisdiction of intellectual property cases is resolved, it is concluded that the establishment of separate courts specializing specifically in intellectual property disputes will result in resolving disputes without delay in a fair and reasonable manner.

The article differentiates between two categories of problems in the consideration of intellectual property issues in court practice. The first type of problems is related to subjective factors, while the second is demonstrated to comprise objective difficulties. Subjective problems comprise of the courts lacking the experience to resolve all disputes involving intellectual property rights. Alternatively, the objective factors are stated to entail the lack of clear legal framework or underdevelopment of single court practice regulating this category of cases.

Therefore, it is concluded that the establishment of specialized courts in Uzbekistan specifically dealing with intellectual property disputes is justified by the development of social relations based on a market economy and the growing importance of intellectual property in the life of the state and society. In this regard, it is argued that the process of formation of a panel of judges in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan should entail a system of retraining and advanced training of judges in the field of intellectual property rights in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the Intellectual Property Agency.

Taking comparative research methods as a basis, it is suggested that the Civil Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Administrative offences should include a chapter devoted to reflection of the specifics of litigation of intellectual property rights, claims, lawsuits, deadlines for appeals and other procedural deadlines, norms that cover all aspects of such disputes differentiating them from other types of cases, as well as, the issue of developing the norms regulating the administrative liability for offences in the field of intellectual property rights and the criminal liability for illegal use of intellectual property rights is also justified