Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Hungary

Abstract

INTRODUCTION In the field of intellectual property rights, including the provisions of the enforcement of IP rights, Hungarian national law had been essentially in line with the international and EU standards even before the implementation of the European Union Enforcement Directive, enabling a potent enforcement position for intellectual property rightholders. As a party to the TRIPS Agreement for over twenty years, Hungary's national IP laws have long been providing effective enforcement measures in the fields of copyright and related rights, trademarks and geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits, those enforcement measures comprising civil and administrative procedures and remedies, including provisions relating to the presentation of information and evidence, injunctions, provisional measures, compensation of damages and compensation of the rightholders’ enforcement expenses, as well as border measures (actions by the customs authorities) and even criminal procedures in cases of the violation of IP rights. Nevertheless, the implementation of the European Union Enforcement Directive has brought significant novelties into the national law, including some that support the rightholders’ ability to obtain more effective enforcement of their IP rights, and defi nitely completed the harmonisation of the national legal surrounding in the field of the enforcement of IP rights with the EU standards, in all related fields. Hungary is one of the few Member States that duly transposed the Enforcement Directive by the deadline. NATIONAL LAW IMPLEMENTING THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LAW – Act No CLXV of 2005 on the revision of certain laws in relation with the enforcement of industrial property rights and copyrights – Act No CXXX of 2017 on the revision of certain laws in relation with the entry into force of Act No CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Proceeding B. TRANSPOSITION ISSUES Including issues related to Article 3 of the Enforcement Directive – Act No XXXIII of 1995 on the Patent Protection of Inventions [‘Patent Law’], Section 119(1) (b), re: Sections 35, 104(2)-(14) – Act No XI of 1997 on the Protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications [‘Trademark Law’], Section 122(1)(a), re: Sections 27, 95(2)-(14) – Act No LXXVI of 1999 on Copyright [‘Copyright Law’], Section 113 (f), re: Sections 94, 94/A, 94/B, 98(1), 99, 106(8) – Act No LIII of 1994 on Judicial Enforcement, Section 317, re: Sections 184/A, 187(1)(b)