PETOŠEVIĆ Uzbekistan Attends Seminar on Combating Counterfeits

On May 11, 2023, PETOŠEVIĆ Uzbekistan Legal Assistant Altinbek Amreev attended a seminar organized by the Uzbek Agency for Technical Regulation and the Uzbek Ministry of Justice focusing on the suppression of counterfeits and the prevention of the production and import of poor-quality food products.

The seminar addressed the rising number of manufacturers of fake goods owing to a lack of regulatory mechanisms during the certification process performed by local certification bodies. Namely, when examining new products and issuing product certificates, local certification bodies paid little to no attention to possible breaches of intellectual property rights. As a result, when the Ministry of Justice held counterfeit manufacturers liable for IP infringement, the latter claimed that their products were officially certified by the Agency.

With the adoption of the Resolution No. 221 introducing changes and improvements in the field of intellectual property, the Agency and its local certification bodies are now obliged to ensure compliance with IP laws when issuing product certificates. The Resolution’s provisions are however yet to be effectively implemented in practice.

The seminar focused on improving the cooperation between the Agency and the Ministry of Justice to prevent the production and sale of counterfeits, including the improvement of the “IP Protection Portal” which the Agency and local certification bodies use for checking compliance with IP laws before issuing product certificates.

By: Altinbek Amreev

For more information, please contact uzbekistan@petosevic.com.