Chairman of Board of İntellectual property Agency received President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan

Chairman of Board of İntellectual property Agency Kamran İmanov received President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AmCham) Nuran Karimov. Greeting the guest K.Imanov spoke about intellectual property issues as a priority direction in the National Concept of "Azerbaijan 2020: Look into the Future" and the wide institutional reforms carried out in our country in the field of intellectual property under the leadership of Head of State Ilham Aliyev and highly appreciated the efforts of organization representing US companies to cooperate with the Agency in raising the level of intellectual property culture in the business sector. He referred to the Statement made by AmCham nowdays, also reflection of the problem related with intellectual property in the prepared “White Paper” document. K.Imanov underlined that this is an appreciable step, saying that closer co-operation with the Agency during the preparation of such documents would be effective and in general, the protection of intellectual property rights in Azerbaijan is of great importance for the Azerbaijani economy.

Thanking for the reception, N. Karimov associated with the fact that these remarks were justified and there is no co-operation between the institutions so far. Speaking about AmCham's work, the guest underlined that thanks to the support of President Ilham Aliyev, the activity of the organization expanded and the attention of citizens to intellectual property issues improved as the economic situation in the country improved.

Head of the Agency, noted that piracy level in software piracy in Azerbaijan decreased from 96% to 74% in comparison with 2005. Our country has been expelled from the Watch list of Special 301 Report of the US Trade Office in 2006 for improvements in enforcement of intellectual property rights. He informed on the discussion of intellectual property issues during the 4th meeting of the Azerbaijan-US Economic Partnership Commission on May 17 of current year. Noting that American companies have great potential for registration of patents and trademarks in Azerbaijan, as the United States is one of the largest trade partners of our country, he said it will soon be held in the Intellectual Property Agency with a meeting with representatives of the US embassy in Azerbaijan and discussing issues of intellectual property more widely.

K.Imanov noted that intellectual property issues were discussed in the sections of the White Paper on parallel import, import of counterfeit goods and patent attorneys. The Agency cooperates with other government agencies in the field of intellectual property rights, including proposals for parallel imports to the State Customs Committee, as well as licensed software for imported computers. Active cooperation with the US largest technology companies is being discussed in this area. He spoke about establishing a DRM system for digital rights management in the Agency, at the same time establishing a working group on patent attorneys' preparation and anticipating the passing of a patent attorney in the near future.

During the meeting, prospects of future cooperation, including organizing trainings for AmCham representatives at the Center for Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights under Agency using the Agency's technical and information database, joint events and other issues were discussed