Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Lithuania

Abstract

NATIONAL LAW IMPLEMENTING THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LAW Lithuania has transposed the provisions of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive 2004/48/EC (the “Enforcement Directive”) through primary legislation. Namely, the Enforcement Directive was implemented through amendments to the Lithuanian Law on Copyright and Related Rights, Patent Law, Law on Trademarks, Law on Designs, Law on the Legal Protection of Topographies of Semiconductor Products, and Law on the Legal Protection of Plant Varieties (collectively, the “Lithuanian legal acts implementing the Enforcement Directive”). B. TRANSPOSITION ISSUES Lithuania did not face any significant issues in the transposition of the Enforcement Directive. The transposition did not require sweeping changes because almost all of the remedies and measures referred to in the Enforcement Directive could be applied prior to the implementation of the Enforcement Directive (this was due to Lithuania's obligation to bring its legislation in line with the enforcement-related provisions of the TRIPS). The really new aspects that had to be transposed were the following issues: the right of information and publication of judicial decisions. In general, Lithuania implemented all of the Enforcement Directive's mandatory provisions as well as its non-mandatory provisions with regard to alternative measures. Furthermore, by reference to the Enforcement Directive's favourability clause (Art. 2(1)), Lithuania went beyond the Enforcement Directive's provisions to introduce certain, more stringent, measures: (i) multiple awards for infringements committed in bad faith; (ii) precautionary seizure of movable and immovable property of the alleged infringer, including the blocking of his/her bank accounts and other assets, for all infringements, i.e. beyond the “commercial scale” requirement; and (iii) a special rule on the burden of proof in the cases of recovery of profi t from the infringer. C. ASSESSMENT REPORTS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION As can be seen from the Commission's report on the application of the Enforcement Directive, Lithuania submitted an assessment report on the implementation of the Enforcement Directive to the Commission that was quite extensive and contained not only general information on the national situation, but also information on stakeholders’ perceptions. The report is not publicly available.