Armenia’s Human Rights Defender has received complaints about the issues that rightful owners face during the import of commodities protected by intellectual property right.

In practice, there are cases when various persons violate the rights of the official importer (rightful owner) by importing commodities to Armenia without the permission of the official importer. In such cases, on the basis of information in the register, the customs authority suspends release of the particular commodity for ten days and informs the official importer at the same time. The customs authority may extend the 10-day time limit for suspension by another 10 days, if the official importer has managed to apply to court for protection of his or her rights and inform the competent authority about that; otherwise, the commodity shall be released into the Armenian market without the consent of the official importer.

The studies conducted by the Business Rights Protection Unit of the Office of the Human Rights Defender on the complaints related to the topic and discussions with field specialists show that, in such cases, protecting rights within the scope of the claims proceedings is not effective.

Taking into account the problems in the sector, the Office of the Human Rights Defender has drafted a bill on making supplements to the Civil Procedure Code of Armenia (http://www.ombuds.am/activity/proposal.html). The bill proposes to carry out investigation of such cases within the scope of a special claims proceedings, setting time limits for the court to render decisions and has been forwarded to competent state authorities.