As described in the reply to the previous question, the Republic of Bulgaria ratified the International Convention on Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations with reservations with regard to the application of its Article 12. The legal basis for this reservation is in Article 16.1(a), items 3 and 4. The producers of phonograms are entitled to compensation for wireless broadcasting or public performance, only if they are citizens of a state party to the Convention. The amount and the term of the compensation are the same as provided for in their native state for the protection of phonograms made for the first time in Bulgaria.

The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights treats computer programs as copyright objects and provides for their protection (Article 3.1.1). The copyright belongs to the person, whose creative work has resulted in the creation of the computer program. In case the computer program was created under an employment contract and unless otherwise agreed, the copyright over it shall belong to the employer Article 14 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights. Unless otherwise agreed with respect to the use of a computer program, the person who has lawfully acquired the right to use a computer program may use it, display it on screen, execute it, transmit it, store it in the memory of his computer, translate it, revise it and effect other changes in it as long as such actions are necessary for attaining the objective for which the right to use that program was acquired, as well as for elimination of errors. Copying of computer programs for personal use is not permitted by the Law. Article 71 of the Law explicitly defines the actions that a person, who has lawfully acquired the right to use a computer program, may conduct without the consent of the author and not paying additional compensation to him: to prepare a back up copy of the program whenever it is necessary for the respective use for which the program had been acquired; to observe, study and test the action of the program in order to determine the ideas and principles which may be embodied in any of its elements as long as this is done in the process of loading the software, its display on a screen, its execution, transmission or storage in the computer memory and only if that person is entitled to carry out such actions pursuant to Article 70; to translate the programming code from one into another, only if that is absolutely necessary for achieving compatibility of an existing program with other programs and on the condition that the necessary information on how to do that is not provided and that such actions are undertaken only in respect to such parts of the program as are necessary for achieving compatibility. The information thus obtained shall not be used either for the creation and distribution of programs with a translated programming code, or for any other actions that may infringe copyright over the computer program.

The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, in accordance with Article 10.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, provides protection for "compilation of data" (Article 3.2.3). Copyright over databases belongs to the person who has created the database concerned. However, unless otherwise agreed, copyright over databases developed under an employment contract shall belong to the employer Article 14 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights. A law amending the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights is being drafted with a view to achieve conformity with EU Directives 93/98/EEC; 93/83/EEC; 92/100/EEC and 96/9/EEC (on databases).

The reference made to Article 9a(1)5 concerns the Copyright Law of the Republic of Bulgaria that was in force up to August 1993. The present Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights has been in force since 1 August 1993. Under the provisions of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, computer programs are treated as enjoying full rights of copyright - Article 3.1.1. According to the provisions of the present Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Article 18.1), the author is entitled to the exclusive right to use the work created by him and to permit its use by other persons. In accordance with paragraph 2.4 of the Additional Provisions of the Law renting, including computer programs and cinematographic works, is a form of distribution of the work, that is qualified as a form of use of the work under Article 18.2 . Under the provisions of Article 18.4 of the Law, the first sale or other transaction performed by the right holder or with his consent, through which the ownership of the original of the work or a copy thereof is transferred, shall terminate the right to distribute that work or copy, with the exception of the right to permit their further renting. The author shall reserve for himself the right to permit renting the originals or copies of the work (including computer programs and cinematographic works), notwithstanding to the transfer of the ownership. The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, in accordance with the provision of Article 11 of the TRIPS Agreement, guarantees the authors of cinematographic works the rights to permit or not to permit renting their works.

Please see the reply to question 5 above.

Article 72 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights stipulates that holders of neighbouring rights are the producers of phonograms over their recordings, the performing artists over their performances and radio and television organizations over their programmes. The economic rights of the above mentioned holders of neighbouring rights may be exercised by duly empowered organizations conducting the collective management of rights (Article 73 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights).

Article 26 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights is in compliance with TRIPS Articles 3 and 9.1 (incorporating Article 5(1) of the Berne Convention). According to Article 26.1 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, the authors of works recorded on sound or video carriers, the performers whose performances have been recorded and the producers of such recordings are entitled to compensation whenever their recordings are recorded for personal use. The compensation to be paid by the persons who manufacture or import blank audio or video carriers amounts to five per cent of the manufacturer's price, respectively – of the customs dutiable value of imported carriers. The compensation payments are made to a society for collective management of copyrights (as such the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria has designated by an Ordinance the "Musicauthor" Society), which distributes them among the organizations representing individual categories of copyright proprietors. These collective societies distribute the compensation sums among their members, as regards the royalties for the foreign authors – they pay the respective compensation sum to foreign society on the grounds of contracts for mutual representation.

According to Article 102 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, the rights of foreign performing artists and producers of phonograms for which a national treatment is not applied, shall be protected under the treaties relating to rights neighbouring to copyright to which the Republic of Bulgaria is a party: the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (the Rome Convention 1961) and the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorized Reproduction of their Phonograms (the Geneva Convention 1971).

As required by Article 14.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, Article 86 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights provides for the exclusive right of the producer to grant a permission for: (a) the reproduction and distribution of phonograms; (b) the import and export of phonogram copies; (c) public performance and broadcasting by wireless, cable or other technical means. According to Article 76.1 of the Law on Copyright or Neighbouring Rights and in compliance with Article 14.1 of the TRIPS Agreement, performing artists have the exclusive right to permit for compensation: (a) the broadcasting of own performance by wireless, cable or other technical means, as well as a sound or video recording of the performance, the reproduction of the recording on audio or video carriers and their distribution; (b) public performance, broadcasting by wireless, cable or other technical means of such recordings. Holders of the above-mentioned rights can seek protection against the infringement of those rights under the Civil Code procedure and in parallel, when the prerequisites required by the law are available – under the Administrative and/or Criminal Code procedure.

Paragraph 6.1 of the Transitional and Final Provisions of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights provides that this Law also applies to works, performances, phonograms, video recordings, radio and television programmes made or performed prior to the entry into force of this Law unless the respective protection periods have expired. As a general rule, copyright protection lasts for 50 years counted as of the beginning of the year following the year of author's death (Article 27.1 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights) and provides for variations of the starting point for copyright protection for an exhaustive list of hypotheses: - collections, etc. works under Article 30 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights are to be protected as of their publication; - films or other audio-visual works under Article 29 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights are to be protected as of being made available to the public; - works having two or more authors under Article 27.2 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights – the term specified in Article 27.1 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights commences as from the death of the last surviving author; - anonymous or pseudonymous works under Article 28 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights are to protected as of first being made available to the public. In respect of related rights, the protection term is also 50 years. It commences as follows: - under Article 82 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights – performing artists – as of the beginning of the year following the year in which the performance recording has been published, respectively, as of the beginning of the year following the year in which the first performance was held; - under Article 89 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights – producers of recordings – as of the beginning of the year following the year in which the phonogram has been published and if it was not published – as of the beginning of the year following the year of its recording. - under Article 92 of the law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights – broadcasting organizations – as of the beginning of the year following the year in which the first broadcasting has taken place. In accordance with Articles 14.2 and 14.5 of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to Article 70.2 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 18 of the Berne Convention, the Republic of Bulgaria provides protection for works, performances and phonograms of authors from other WTO Members for 50 year term preceding the date of Bulgaria's accession to WTO. A drafting is underway for amending the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights. It aims to provide for a 70 year term of copyright protection; for film products the protection will commence as of the beginning of the year following the year of the death of the last survived among the director, screenplay writer, cameraman, dialogue-writer and music-writer (if the latter has created the music especially for the film product concerned). Rights related to copyright will be introduced for film producers.

Phonogram producers' rental rights are stipulated in Article 86.1.1 in relation to paragraph 2.4 of the Transitional and Final Provisions of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in compliance with Article 14.4 of the TRIPS Agreement. In particular, Article 86.1.1 and Article 86.2 of the law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights provide for the producers the right to permit distribution of their phonograms. At the same time paragraph 2.4 of the Transitional and Final Provisions defines renting as a form of distribution of a work. The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in compliance with TRIPS Article 14.4 provides for rental rights protection for producers of phonograms.

The permission under Article 25 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights is in compliance with Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 9.2 of the Berne Convention. Article 25 envisages hypotheses of free copying of already published works only for personal use. This is a special case which does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonable prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holders as required by Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 9.2 of the Berne Convention. Article 26 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights specifies the cases in which the authors of already recorded works, the performing artists and phonogram producers have the right to compensation payments whenever their recordings are re-recorded (copied) for personal use.

The exemption provided for in Article 23.7 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights is in compliance with Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 9.2 of the Berne Convention. It applies to reproduction by copier, or other similar means of parts of published works or of small works, as well as the recordings of parts and other audio-visual works on audio or video carriers by educational institutions and their use for educational purposes. Article 10.2 of the Berne Convention contains a similar provision. As pointed out in the reply to question 6 above, this special case does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder, as required by Article 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Article 9.2 of the Berne Convention.

The provisions of Articles 21 and 22 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights are in compliance with the provisions of TRIPS Article 9.1 (incorporating Article 11bis(2) of the Berne Convention). In particular, Article 21 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights provides that the permission for wireless broadcasting of a work shall include a permission to broadcast the work, solely under the condition that the transmission is conducted simultaneously with the broadcasting in an unchanged form and does not extend beyond the territory for which the broadcasting right has been granted. In all other cases the author has the right to equitable remuneration for the right to cable broadcasting. On the other hand, Article 22 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights provides that the permission to broadcast a work by wireless means includes the right to transmit the work by signal to a telecommunications satellite permitting its reception through an intermediary organization different from the transmitting authority. This is only subject to the author's authorization of the receiving organization to broadcast the work by wireless means, to transmit it by cable or another technical means, or to present it to the public by any other means. The receiving organization has to pay remuneration to the author for broadcasting of the work via a signal to the telecommunication satellite.

The provisions of Article 2 of the Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs, which contain the condition for the goods and services to be of the "same kind", is not in contradiction with Article 15.1 of the TRIPS Agreement. Both provisions define trademarks and service marks as signs distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.

The provision of Article 3 of the Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs is one of a general nature and therefore it does not contain an exhaustive list of the signs that may be registered as marks, and does not exclude the possibility of registration of the marks envisaged in Article 15.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.

The Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs does not contain any special provision concerning the registration of marks which are not inherently capable of distinguishing the relevant goods or services but which have acquired distinctiveness through use. However, the Patent Office, based on provisions of the Paris Convention which is part of the national legislation, grants protection of such marks provided that there is sufficient proof of the acquired distinctiveness of the mark.

Article 11 of the Paris Convention obliges its member states to grant temporary protection to industrial property objects, including trademarks, exhibited at official or officially recognized exhibitions, but it does not define any concrete means for that. Temporary protection under Article 15 of the Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs is granted by allowing the possibility to claim the right of priority as from the date of exhibiting the mark, under certain conditions as defined by the Law.

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Article 16.1 of the TRIPS Agreement corresponds to Article 19 of the Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs. The second paragraph of this provision is implemented in the Bulgarian legislation through the direct application of Article 6 bis of the Paris Convention, which is part of the national legislation. Article 4(d) of the Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs is in compliance with Article 16.3 of the TRIPS Agreement. The Law on the Protection of Competition of 29 April 1998 contains provisions concerning unfair competition in the use of trademarks. Article 33.2 thereof prohibits the use of a Firm name, trademark or distinguishing design being identical with or similar to those of other persons, in a manner that may prejudice the interests of the competitors and/or the users.