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20
DEVELOPMENTS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
1995
MAY
- India's new copyright law, approved in May 1994, entered into force on May 10.
- Bulgaria amended its penal code on May 19 to provide criminal sanctions for copyright infringements.
- Romania enacted legislation to protect integrated circuits.
- Hong Kong enacted increased criminal penalties for commercial piracy.
JUNE
- Portugal promulgated a new industrial property code which went into effect on June 1. The intent of the new code is to bring Portugal's patent and trademark laws into compliance with TRIPs, as well as the European Patent Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
- Germany adopted amendments to transpose the EU directives on copyright duration and rental rights into its law on June 2.
- The Turkish Parliament approved legislation amending Turkey's copyright law on June 7. The approved law still falls short of U.S. objectives in key respects.
- The Czech Republic adopted amendments to its trademark law on June 21 which, inter alia, will simplify administrative steps concerning registration and sale of trademarks, strictly define trademark fraud and ban unauthorized registration and use in the Czech Republic of generally well-known marks.
- Turkey enacted by decree new patent and trademark laws on June 27. The EU Customs Union Agreement requires Turkey to provide both product and process protection by 1999.
- Korea enacted amendments to its Computer Program Protection Law which, inter alia, increase the term of protection for computer software to 50 years.
- St. Lucia's accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property became effective.
