See the response to the previous question.

For the purpose of protecting rights under the Industrial Property Law, the following civil actions may be taken: (a) To submit a claim against an infringement of the rights granted (Article 196); (b) to submit a claim to rights granted to a third party who is not entitled to them (Article 197); (c) to submit a claim to nullify a patent or registration granted in breach of the provisions of the law (Article 201). Since the rights recognized by the Law on Copyright and Related Rights are not subject to any formality, the sole possibility allowed is to initiate civil actions on the grounds of infringement of the rights granted (Article 133).

Under the Guatemalan legal system, civil actions are initiated at the request of the party affected. Every document submitted must be accompanied by a copy so that it can be notified to the opposing party and all evidence is received or processed by citing the opposing party (Articles 63, 128 and 129 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure). Every decision must be disclosed to the parties, otherwise it is not binding and cannot affect the party's rights. The complaint and the first decision on the file must be notified in person to the defendant; subsequent decisions are notified at the place specified by the parties, in accordance with the law. For all such notifications a copy is furnished of the application and of the decision, or only the decision when it has not been issued as a result of a previous application (Article 66, 67, 70, 71, 72 and 79 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure).

Under Guatemala's intellectual property laws, anyone bringing or intending to bring an action in connection with recognized rights, whether the action is civil or criminal, may apply to the competent judicial authority for any measure that he regards as appropriate in order to: (a) Protect his rights; (b) prevent an infringement from being committed; (c) avoid the consequences of an infringement; or (d) obtain or preserve evidence relating to the infringement. Under Article 187 of the Industrial Property Law, the provisional measures that may be ordered to safeguard an industrial property right are the following: (a) Immediate cessation of the use, application and marketing of the infringing products and the unfair acts; (b) seizure and confiscation of the infringing products, including containers, packets, packaging, labelling, printed or advertising material, and the machinery and other materials used for the infringement; (c) prohibition of the importation of the infringing products or the machinery and materials to be used for the purposes of the infringement; (d) the necessary measures to prevent the continuation or repetition of the infringement or the acts of unfair competition; (e) preventive notation in the register of a complaint in cases requesting nullity of a patent or registration; and (f) suspension of sanitary or other registrations or licences necessary for the customs release, distribution, sale or marketing of infringing products. The provisional measures that may be ordered to safeguard copyright or a related right include those under Article 128bis of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and in addition to the above measures: (a) Cessation of the unlawful acts or unlawful trading in the protected work; (b) a search of public or private buildings; (c) attachment of movables, including bank accounts, in the name of the persons said to be guilty of the unlawful act; and attachment of the infringer's net proceeds; (d) immediate seizure and forfeiture of copies of specimens of unlawfully produced works and phonograms and of the instruments used to produce them, transport them, keep them, distribute them, offer them for sale, rent them or communicate them in any form; (e) suspension of customs release of copies or specimens of unlawfully reproduced works and phonograms; (f) order for a review of the accounts of the persons said to be responsible for the unlawful act; (g) seizure of the accounting records of the person said to be guilty of the unlawful act or of the accounting equipment containing the registers; (h) temporary closure of the premises or business containing the copies or specimens of unlawful works and phonograms; and (i) any other suitable measure to provisionally ensure cessation of the unlawful act, protection of the rights conferred by law or preservation of the evidence relating to the breach. Articles 186 and 187 of the Industrial Property Law; 128, 128bis and 133bis of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights; and 530 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure. Provisional measures must be requested in writing and the competent judicial authority shall order them inaudita altera parte within the next two days, except where a guarantee or assurance is required, in which case the period shall start from the posting of the guarantee.

Under Guatemalan law, provisional measures are ordered without notification or intervention of the defendant, and they must be notified at the time of execution or immediately thereafter (Articles 186 of the Industrial Property Law, 133 ter of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and 534 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure).

Both the Industrial Property Law and the Law on Copyright and Related Rights allow the possibility for holders of a registered trademark or a protected work or phonogram, or their licensees, to request suspension of customs release and entry of goods into the channels of commerce or the process of exporting them. Only in the case of pirated goods may suspension of customs release be requested directly to the customs authorities (Articles 190 and 191 of the Industrial Property Law and 129 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights). In both cases, the application must be made in writing, specifying in detail the unlawful goods which it is alleged are to be imported or exported, furnishing evidence pointing to the existence of reasonable indications of the alleged infringement. The decision ordering suspension of the decision must be notified to the importer, consignee or exporter of the detained products until the measure has been executed.

Border measures can be applied only to suspend the importation or exportation of goods which infringe rights to a registered trademark or a protected work or phonogram (Articles 490 of the Industrial Property Law and 129 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights).

Both the Industrial Property Law and the Law on Copyright and Related Rights establish that anyone requesting the application of border measures shall furnish sufficient evidence providing reasonable indications of the alleged infringement and a detailed description of the unlawful goods. The applicant for border measures shall be liable to the payment of damages to the importer or exporter in the following cases: (a) Where an action on the grounds of the alleged infringement is not brought within ten days following notification of the suspension of the importation or exportation; (b) when the detention is groundless, in other words, the measure is revoked or the complaint is declared inadmissible. The suspension of the importation or exportation shall be valid for ten days from the date of notification of the corresponding decision. An extension will be allowed for a similar period only in the case of counterfeit goods prejudicial to a trademark right. However, in the case of the importation of counterfeit or pirated goods, the measure may be confirmed as a precautionary measure (Articles 193 of the Industrial Property Law and 130 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights). Once the measure has been ordered, the applicant shall be allowed to inspect the detained goods in order to obtain further evidence in support of his claim (Articles 131 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and 194 of the Industrial Property Law).

Article 275 of the Criminal Code establishes in connection with industrial property that the following acts, inter alia, constitute an offence: (a) Introducing into commerce, selling, offering for sale, storing or distributing goods or services covered by a registered distinctive sign or by an imitation or counterfeit of such signs, in connection with goods or services the same as or similar to those protected by the registration; (b) introducing into commerce, selling, offering for sale, storing or distributing goods or services covered by registered distinctive sign after having totally or partly altered, replaced or removed it; (c) the use, offering for sale, storing or distributing of goods or services bearing a registered trademark, confusingly like another registered mark, after an order has been issued to cease using that trademark; (d) the making of labels, containers, packaging or other similar materials reproducing or containing the registered sign or an imitation or counterfeit thereof, as well as the marketing or storing of such materials; and (e) the use in commerce of labels, packets, containers and other packaging of goods or of the identification of a trader's services or copies, imitations or reproductions thereof that may mislead the public as to the origin of the goods or services. The penalty for these offences is one to four years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 to 500,000 quetzales, without prejudice to any damages payable. For its part, Article 274 of the Criminal Code establishes in connection with copyright and related rights that the following acts constitute an offence: (a) The false attribution of the status of author and/or copyright holder, performer, phonographic producer or a broadcasting organization; (b) the distortion, mutilation, modification or any action that causes injury to the integrity of the work or to the honour and reputation of the author; (c) the reproduction of any work, performance, phonogram or broadcast, without the authorization of the author or relevant right holder; (d) the adaptation, arrangement or modification of a protected work or part thereof, without the authorization of the author or the right holder; (e) the communication to the public by any means or procedure of a protected work or a phonogram, without the authorization of the relevant right holder; (f) the unauthorized reproduction, total or partial, of a protected work or a phonogram, whether by means of sale, rental, lease, rental with an option to buy, loan, or in any other manner; (g) the fixation, reproduction or communication to the public, by any means or procedure of an artistic performance, without the authorization of the performer or the right holder; (h) the fixation, reproduction or retransmission of a broadcast transmitted by satellite, broadcasting or by wire, cable, fibre optics or any other procedure, without the authorization of the owner; (i) the communication to the public of a broadcast or transmission in a place to which the public can gain access by the payment of an admission fee, or for the purposes of consuming or purchasing goods or services, without the authorization of the relevant right holder; (j) the publication of a protected work with the title changed or removed, with or without being altered; (k) the decodification of programme-carrying signals of any kind transmitted by satellite or any other means of telecommunication, without the authorization of the legitimate distributor; (l) any act that circumvents or attempts to circumvent a technological measure implemented by the author or the holder of a related right, so as to avoid unauthorized use of any kind of protected work, phonogram, artistic performance or broadcast; (m) any act that induces, permits, facilitates or conceals an infringement of any of the exclusive rights pertaining to authors, copyright holders, performers, phonogram producers or broadcasting organizations; (n) the unauthorized removal or alteration of any electronic information concerning the collective management of copyright or related rights; (o) the unauthorized distribution, marketing, promotion, importation, broadcasting or communication to the public of works, artistic performances, phonographic productions or broadcasts, in the knowledge that the electronic information concerning the collective management of any of those rights has been removed or altered without authorization; (p) the transportation, storage or concealment of reproductions or copies, in any physical medium, of protected works, phonograms, artistic performances or broadcasts, made without the consent of the author or relevant title holder; (q) the collection of financial benefits for the use of protected works, performances, phonograms or broadcasts or engaging in any other activities proper to a collective management company, without being authorized to do so; (r) the disclosure of an unpublished work without the consent of the author or the relevant title holder; (s) the full or partial translation of a work without the authorization of the author or the relevant right holder; (t) the unauthorized distribution of original or lawful reproductions of a protected work or a phonogram, whether by means of sale, rental, rental with an option to buy, loan or any other manner; and (u) the importation or exportation of the original or reproductions of any protected work for commercial exploitation, in any type of medium, or in phonograms, without the authorization of the relevant right holder. The penalty for one of these offences is one to four years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 to 500,000 quetzales, without prejudice to any damages payable.

Criminal actions for infringements of any intellectual property rights are dealt with by the courts with jurisdiction at the place where the unlawful act is committed. The Department of Public Prosecutions is responsible for bringing criminal actions against persons guilty of infringements of intellectual property rights.

The seizure, forfeiture and destruction of goods that infringe a protected intellectual property right, as well as the forfeiture and destruction of the materials and equipment used in making them, are measures that may be requested provisionally or ordered in a judgement at the close of civil or criminal proceedings relating to infringements of intellectual property rights.

At the present time, the Guatemalan judiciary has no data system to furnish the requisite information and an inquiry would have to be conducted with approximately 400 courts throughout the Republic that are competent to deal with civil and criminal proceedings. It is difficult to do this at the present time.

See the response to the previous question.

At the present time no initiative is planned to change the laws protecting intellectual property rights because the Industrial Property Law and the recent amendments to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights were adopted by the Congress on 31 August 2000, were published in the Official Gazette on 27 September 2000 and entered into force on 1 November 2000.

There is no provision in the legislation currently in force that specifically addresses the protection of micro-organisms, non-essentially biological processes, microbiological processes and plant varieties. However, the present draft Plant Variety Act (due to be tabled in 2010) addresses the protection of plant varieties in Sections 5 to 9 (Part II).

Under the legislation currently in force Grenada is operating a patent re-registration system for patents registered in the United Kingdom under the Registration of UK Patents Act (Cap. 283) and does not itself grant patents for the territory of Grenada. The Registrar does have the authority to refuse the re-registration of a UK patent if its grant or its use would be scandalous or contrary to law or morality under the Patent Act (Cap 227). The draft Industrial Property Bill 2002 which had been prepared with the assistance of WIPO was notified to the WTO as IP/N/1/GRD/I/3 on 13 June 2002, and contained provisions for patentability and exclusions from patentability, and provided for exceptions. This draft did not pass into law. The present draft Patents Act (due to be tabled in 2010) contains provisions on patentability and exceptions in Section 2 which deals with matters excluded from patent protection and and Section 3 which gives the patentability criteria (Part II of the said Act).

The draft Industrial Property Bill 2002 which had been prepared with the assistance of WIPO was notified to the WTO as IP/N/1/GRD/I/3 on 13 June 2002, and contained provisions on the rights of the patentee. This draft did not pass into law. The present draft Patents Act (due to be tabled in 2010) contains provisions on the right of importation in Section 11(1) & 11(2).

The draft Industrial Property Bill 2002 which had been prepared with the assistance of WIPO was notified to the WTO as IP/N/1/GRD/I/3 on 13 June 2002, contained provisions on compulsory licenses. This draft did not pass into law. The present draft Patents Act (due to be tabled in 2010) contains provision on compulsory licenses in Section 13 (Part II of the said Act).

The draft Industrial Property Bill 2002 which had been prepared with the assistance of WIPO was notified to the WTO as IP/N/1/GRD/I/3 on 13 June 2002, and contained provisions on process patents. This draft did not pass into law. The present draft Patents Act (due to be tabled this year) contains provisions for the principle of the reversal of burden of proof on process patent litigation in Section 21.

The Grenada Pharmacy Council, operating under Cap 241, recognizes marketing approval from the regulatory authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom and does not itself require test data submission for marketing approval for pharmaceuticals or chemical entities. There is therefore no provision in the current law pertaining specifically to the protection of test data for pharmaceuticals or chemical entities. There is no general protetction for undisclosed information in the draft acts mentioned above.