The legislative and legal basis of protection

The legislative and legal basis of protection

Azerbaijan was one of the first post-Soviet countries to establish a legislative basis for copyright protection. It did this in 1996, by passing the Copyright and Related Rights Act, recognized by international experts as matching the criteria applied by democratic, civilized societies, which regulates relations between the authors (rights-holders) and users of works.
A presidential decree of that same year regulated implementation of the Act and management of copyright specified the main enforcement measures and detailed the powers of the authority responsible - the State Copyright Agency.
Government Decree No. 38 of May 2 1997, and the government decisions taken under it, determine minimum tariffs for various kinds of work, prescribe standard forms for copyright agreements, and regulate voluntary registration, the issuing of registration certificates and other questions with an important bearing on the implementation of copyright law. In consultation with the Ministry of Justice, the Copyright Agency has also issued a number of regulations and official instructions to help enforce the Act.
Some of the rules on copyright are reflected in other important laws, such as those on entrepreneurial activity, culture, the cinema,, architecture, town-planning, advertising, publishing, etc. Like that of all developed countries, Azerbaijan’s intellectual property law is essentially complex, and embodies regulations derived from state, administrative, financial, labour and even criminal law. Copyright may be an independent complex, but it achieves effectiveness by bringing together norms derived from various branches of the law. Traditionally, too, copyright and related rights are covered by civil law.
Azerbaijan takes an active part in international co-operation on intellectual property. It joined WIPO in 1996, and has accepted the Universal Copyright Convention (1997), the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1998) and the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms (2001). Participation in the Rome Convention on Related Rights and in WIPO’s agreements on copyright for phonograms and use on Internet is also being considered by the relevant national authorities. Azerbaijan is a party to agreements on copyright concluded within the CIS, and also has bilateral agreements with various states. 
A table, giving an overview of Azerbaijan’s laws and regulations on copyright and related rights, as well as its participation in international structures and agreements, is enclosed. 

K.Imanov, 2005