Intellectual Property and Data Protection

If a trademark, invention, utility model has been developed by you, then registration or obtaining a patent is required to protect the result of your work, as a rule. Such registration can be national or international. It can be obtained for various commodity headings.

Lawyers will help determine the very possibility of registering and protecting your intellectual property rights, will select the territory and the procedures required for it. We will perform the check for availability of similar objects that prevent protection of your intellectual property rights jointly with patent attorneys . As a result, you will receive a registration certificate or other right-setting document to protect your intellectual property rights in the corresponding jurisdiction.

If it is necessary to re-register the intellectual property rights to third parties, we will prepare an assignment agreement or another suitable contract and support passing the required registration procedures.

Every activity like production or import of branded goods, trade through retail stores, advertising can require conclusion of a license agreement with the copyright holder for the use of trademark rights and other intellectual property rights. Unlawful use of a trademark makes the right holder entitled to demand a compensation from the violator in the amount of up to 50.000 basic values (about EUR 118.000) without having to prove the damage amount.

As a rule, a license agreement involves long-term cooperation and the copyright holder’s supervision. Lawyers will help draw up a license agreement taking into consideration the business specifics, providing for measures of control and liability, conditions for early termination of the contract and reimbursement of damages.

If you acquire a franchise (an integrated business license), availability of special requirements for its content and registration in Belarus should be taken into consideration. We will verify the supporting documents in respect of all objects included into the license package, draw up a franchising agreement taking into consideration the requests of the parties, and support the registration procedures.

Competition is not always fair. Your success makes yout competitors sleepless and they may improperly use your trademarks, technologies, appearance of goods, production secrets and other intellectual property to gain a market advantage. We are ready to ensure comprehensive protection of your business against such attacks.

Firstly, each separate intellectual property object can be protected in accordance with the judicial, administrative and criminal litigation procedure. For example, unlawful use of a trademark makes the right holder entitled to demand a compensation from the violator in the amount of up to 50.000 basic values (about EUR 118,000) without having to prove the damage amount. You can prohibit the offender to perform specific actions in court, for example, advertising and offering a particular product for sale, to remove a counterfeit product (goods made with violations of your intellectual property rights) from sale.

Secondly, all actions of the violator in the aggregate may constitute unfair competition. Judicial bodies and the MART (Ministry of Antitrust Regulation and Trade) deal with unfair competition cases. We support our clients at all stages of such cases, up to forced execution of court statements.

Each company deals with processing of personal data, i.e., the data of its employees, customers and potential counterparties, casual contacts in forums and business meetings. Every year, the legislator for a stricter procedure for collecting, storing and processing of personal data. This issue is particularly relevant for the companies that exchange such data with their parent or subsidiary structures (for example, have centralized storage of data on all employees of a group of companies), or conduct business using the Internet (for example, using servers located outside Belarus), make mailings in the contacts database formed by them.

A separate group of issues is related to introduction of the GDPR starting from May 2018, which establishes special requirements and responsibilities when processing personal data of the EU citizens. Many Belarusian organizations that are subcontractors in the processing such data or directly perform business in the EU have already faced the need to develop a set of protective measures to avoid multi-million penalties.

Lawyers will perform the audit of the personal data to which your company has access, and will develop a set of measures of the organizational, legal and technical nature to ensure security of personal data and your business.

If you are aware of a real or potential violation of intellectual property rights and it involves commodity movement between countries (for example, the goods are imported using your trademarks or know-hows without your consent), then we can protect your business by registering such objects in the customs register of intellectual property rights.

Lawyers can be official representatives of the right holder before the customs authorities, participate in identification and forfeiture of counterfeit goods (goods manufactured in violation of your intellectual property rights).