Patents
According to Article 42:
1) The owner of a patent and the applicant for a patent shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court against any person who has infringed or is infringing the patent or the provisional protection conferred on a published patent application. The owner of the patent and the applicant shall have the same rights against any person who has performed acts or is performing acts which make it likely that such infringement will occur ("imminent infringement"). The proceedings may not be instituted after five years from the act of infringement.
2) a) If the owner of the patent proves that an infringement has been committed or is being committed, the Court shall award damages and shall grant an injunction to prevent further infringement and any other remedy provided in the general law.
b) If the owner of the patent proves imminent infringement, the Court shall grant an injunction to prevent infringement and any other remedy provided in
the general law.
3) a) Unless the licence contract provides otherwise, any licensee may request the owner of the patent to institute Court proceedings for any infringement
indicated by the licensee, who must specify the relief desired.
b) Such licensee may, if he proves that the owner of the patent received the request but refuses or fails to institute the proceedings within three months from the receipt of the request, institute the proceedings in his own name, after notifying the owner of the patent of his intention. The owner of the patent shall have the right to join in the proceedings.
c) Even before the end of the three-month period referred to in subparagraph (3)(b), the Court shall, on the request of the licensee, grant an appropriate injunction to prevent infringement or to prohibit its continuation, if the licensee proves that immediate action is necessary to avoid substantial damage.
4) Where the subject matter of the patent is a process for obtaining a product, the burden of establishing that a product was not made by the process shall be on the alleged infringer if either of the following conditions is fulfilled:
a) the product is new; or
b) a substantial likelihood exists that the product was made by the process and the owner of the patent has been unable through reasonable efforts to
determine the process actually used.
According to Articles 57 and 58 of the law:
1) The Regional Court of Tirana shall have exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute concerning a patent application or patent, in particular for:
a) any action for infringement or a declaration of non-infringement of a patent or patent application;
b) any action or counterclaim for invalidation of a patent;
c) any action concerning the right to the patent, the ownership or assignment of a patent application or patent;
d) any action concerning a licence contract;
e) the grant of non-voluntary licences;
f) the review decisions of Board of Appeal of the Patent Office.
2) Decisions of the Regional Court of Tirana on any type of disputes referred to in this Article may be appealed to the Court of Appeal.
1) Within the period of patent duration, an action may be instituted in Court without any time limitation, if the dispute has arisen:
a) on invalidation of patents (Article 46);
b) on the grant of licences.
2) In other cases of disputes, which are not referred to in paragraph (1) of this Article, the term for instituting an action in Court is limited to three years unless this Law or the legislative acts in force provide for other terms.
Trademarks
According to Article 89:
1) The owner of the registered mark shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court against any person who has infringed or is infringing his rights under the conditions of Article 83 of this Law. The owner shall have the same right against any person who has performed acts or is performing acts which make it likely that such infringement will occur ("imminent infringement").
2) a) If the owner of the registered mark proves that an infringement has been committed or is being committed, the Court shall award compensation. In these compensations will be included the profit of the person who has performed the infringement, the damage which has incurred the owner of the mark except the one included in the profit of the breaker and the expenses including the law costs. The Court shall grant an injunction to prevent further infringement and any other remedy provided in the general law.
b) If the owner of the registered mark proves imminent infringement, the Court shall grant an injunction to prevent further infringement and any other remedy provided in general law.
According to Article 91:
1) The Court may, on the request of any person, invalidate a registration on the ground that the registration does not comply with Article 73(3), 74, 75 and 76 of this Law.
2) Any invalidated registration shall be considered to be null and void from the date of the registration.
3) When the decision of the Court to invalidate the registration becomes final the Court shall notify the Patent Office of the decision. The Patent Office shall record the decision in the register of marks and publish it.
Industrial designs
According to Article 70:
1) The owner of the registered design shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court against any person who has infringed or is infringing his rights under Article 67 of this Law. The owner shall have the same rights against any person who has performed acts or is performing acts which make it likely that such infringement will occur ("imminent infringement ").
2) a) If the owner of the registered design proves that an infringement has been committed or is being committed, the Court shall award compensations. In
these compensations, will be included the profit of the person who has performed the infringement, the damage which has incurred the owner of the design except the one is included in the profit of the breaker and the expenses including the law costs. The Court shall grant an injunction to prevent further infringement and any other remedy provided in general Law.
b) If the owner of the registered design proves imminent infringement, the Court shall grant an injunction to prevent infringement and any other remedy provided in the general law.
Appellation of origin
According to Article 93(1) (as amended by Law No. 8477 dated 22 April 1999):
Any person who has registered an appellation of origin and/or whose name is entered as a user of the appellation of origin shall be entitled to use it for the designation of the goods covered by its registration or to use it in advertising or on business papers. He shall be entitled to prohibit the use of the appellation of origin by third persons not entered as its users.
Article 10(1) of the Law on Industrial Property authorizes Courts to impose a fine on any natural or legal person who knowingly infringes an intellectual property right; the amount of the fine is to be doubled in the event of a repetition of the knowing infringement within 5 years of the original offence.
Albanian Law on Copyright, under its new Article 50.b (as amended by Law No. 8594 dated 6 April 2000, Article 5), states that disputes between the user of an intellectual property work and the author or the agency to which the rights have been transferred by the author, because of a violation of the conditions specified in the contract concluded between them, are submitted by the interested party to the relevant court for civil settlement.
Article 67 the Law on Competition authorizes courts to impose fine to any person who does not respect business secrets.
Article 82(4) of the Customs Code states as following: "The customs authorities, upon requestof the holder of a trademark or patent of production or other neighbouring rights specified in the Implementing Provisions of this Code may prohibit their release in free circulation, the exportation, the re-exportation and their placing under the suspensive procedure of the goods that are recognized to be counterfeited or pirated goods, according to the procedures provided for in the Implementing Provisions of this Code." (The Implementing Provisions of the Customs Code, under points 119-120, state in more details about this subject).
