Article 42 of the Law on Industrial Property states that it has a course of action against any person who is performing acts that make it likely that infringement will occur (imminent infringement), Courts are authorized to grant an injunction to prevent infringement and any other remedy provided in general law. Article 70 provides similarly for industrial designs. Article 89 provides similarly for trademarks. The new Article 93(1) provides similarly for geographical indications. In Article 101, paragraph 4 is added by Law No. 8477, dated 22 April 1999, which reads: The judicial authorities shall have the authority to order prompt and effective provisional measures: a) to prevent an infringement of any intellectual property right from occurring, and in particular to prevent the entry into channels of commerce in their jurisdiction of goods, including imported goods immediately after customs clearance; b) to preserve relevant evidence in regard to the alleged infringement. Under Albanian Civil Procedure Code, Article 170 paragraph 7 states "as preliminary actions, the judge decides, according to the case, the provision of the seizure of the goods or other provisional relief". Article 274 of the Criminal Procedural Code states: "When there is a danger that free possession of an object related to the criminal offence may aggravate or prolong its consequences or facilitate the commission of other criminal offences the competent court, on demand of the prosecutor, orders its attachment by reasoned decision."' Under Implementing Provisions on the Customs Code, Article 119.4 states that General Directorate of Customs can decide, upon approval of the application, that the applicant forward advance payment, subject to revising, to the satisfaction of enforcement costs and indemnify the defending party against harm due to the unjustified suspension of free release of goods. The Code of Civil Procedure, under Title VI, Chapter IV deals with notices, whereas Article 21 of the Code states that, when the law allows, and the circumstances of the case dictate the taking of a judicial decision, independently from the knowledge of one party, the latter has the right to appeal in a judicial way against the decision made.

Article 82(4) of the Customs Code states that the customs authorities, upon request of the holder of a trademark or patent of production or other neighbouring rights specified in the Implementing Provisions of this Code may prohibit the release in free circulation, the exportation, the re-exportation and their placing under the suspensive procedure of the goods that are recognized to be counterfeit or pirated goods, according to the procedures provided for in the Implementing Provisions of this Code. Under Implementing Provisions of the Customs Code, Point 119.1 constitutes that the holder of the right may lodge an application in writing at the General Directorate of Customs, upon which, customs authorities may suspend the release of the goods or seize the goods depending on the situation (Point 120.1).

According to Article 82, the General Director orders the relevant customs authorities, antismuggling structures and customs offices to suspend the counterfeit goods under any of the customs regime (import, export etc) mentioned above.

The Implementing Provisions on Customs Code, Article 120.1, states the General Directorate of Customs may suspend the release of the goods or seize the goods depending on the situation. The new Article 89(3) of the Law on Industrial Property (as amended by Law No. 8477, dated 22 April 1999) states: In addition to the measures specified in paragraph 2(a) of this Article, the Court may re-establish the situation that existed before the infringement and to stop infringing actions, to proceed with all effective seizure of the goods and, when necessary, to destroy illegally used marks, tools that could be used to manufacture the goods and the goods themselves in absence of possibility to remove any illegally used mark from such goods.

Article 199(2) of the Customs Code mentions several cases where the relief from import duties is granted. Goods contained in travellers' personal luggage are mentioned in point (f) of the same Article. Points 477 to 560 of the Implementing Provisions of the Customs Code treat in more detail these cases.

Article 50 of Copyright Law as amended by Law No. 8594 dated 6 April 2000 underlines that "the translation, adaptation, sound or visual recording, reproduction, the transmission of an artistic work without the authorization of its author, which conflicts with the provisions of this law or the international conventions ratified by the Republic of Albania, when the author's moral and economic rights have been infringed, constitutes a criminal work and is penalized by fine or imprisonment up to one year." Article 101 of the Law on Industrial Property provides for fines in case of intentional infringement stating: "Any natural or legal person who performs an act which he knows constitutes an infringement of the patent, mark or design shall commit an offence and shall be punishable from the Court by a fine between lek 20,000 and 100,000." Whereas the Penal Code, as amended by Law No. 7883 dated 24 January 2001, under Articles 147-149 underlines fines and imprisonment by up to four years for misappropriation of property through fraudulence by introducing a work of art and culture as the original or by changing the authenticity of the authorship; and fines and imprisonment by up to two years for partially or completely plagiarizing somebody else's work or for unauthorized reproduction of somebody's work. And, according to the same Law, Article 288(a) stipulates: The unlawful production and distribution on commercial scale of industrial and nutritive articles and goods constitutes a criminal infringement and is punishable with fine or imprisonment up to 2 years. This offence, when committed in collaboration with other persons, more than once, or when has brought serious consequences, is punishable with imprisonment from 3 to 10 years.

The three following intellectual property rights-related laws provide for measures aimed at preventing violation of intellectual property rights: - the 1992 Trade Marks Law No.37 in its Chapter VI on Penalty (Articles 37-43); - the 1992 Copyright Law in its Chapter VIII (Articles 38-44) on Penalty; - the 1992 Patent and Design Law in its Chapter V on Preventive Measures, Offences and Penalty (Articles 58-61) lay down measures to prevent any infringement unlawful act which violate the owner right of intellectual property. These laws also provide for remedy measures like preventive seizure, confiscation, destruction of products and equipment as well as removing of the effects of the illegal acts and compensation. Damages compensation for the holder of rights The 1992 Trade Marks Law, Articles 40 and 43, and Patent Law, Article 61, provide for compensation. The Civil Transactional Law also provides for compensation. Other remedies The 1992 Trade Marks Law, Articles 41-43, provides for measures to remove goods outside the channels of commerce through the seizure and confiscation procedures. The removal of trademark and the product and equipment if needed. The 1992 Patent Law, Articles 58-61, provides for the same provisions. The 1992 Copyrights Law, Article 43, provides for confiscation measures and the closing of the institution violating copyright. The draft amendment will provide more detailed measures to enforce copyrights as reflected in the TRIPS Agreement. Right of information Article 41 of the Trade Marks Law provides that the court could order, within the procedure of seizure, to provide information on the third persons involved in the production and distribution of the infringing products. Judicial appeal The 1992 Trade Marks Law, Article 40, provides for the possibility for the owner of a trademark to access to the judicial procedures in order to enforce its rights. The Civil Transactions Law Article 282 provide the owner with the right of appeal through the judicial system in order to enforce its rights. The Evidence Law provides for an equitable and fair access to judicial procedures. The balance of the rights and obligations of both parties' claims and the opposing party is ensured. The basic principle of this law is that the claimant must provide evidence to substantiate his claim and the evidence must be relevant to the action. The court can order the evidence be produced if it is under control of the opposing party. The court can also call on the party to question him regarding the changes or alterations made to the element of evidence. Compensation for the opposing party The Civil Transactional Law provides for compensation for the opposing party who has been subject to abusive procedures relating to enforcement. Preventive customs procedures Customs Departments are allowed to take measures at the borders to prevent any violation of intellectual property rights in accordance with the above-mentioned laws as well as under Customs regulations. These measures could be taken either following the demand of the right holder or the judicial order.

The 1992 Copyrights Law, Articles 37-44, provides for preventive measures and penalty including confiscation, the closing of the institution violating copyright and prison measures and compensation. The draft amendment will provide more detailed measures to enforce copyrights as referred to in the TRIPS Agreement. The obligations arising from Article 9 of the TRIPS Agreement (Berne Convention, Articles 1-21 except Article 6bis) will be met through the extension of the scope in terms of the various categories and subjects of copyright as well as the nature of the protection. Computer programs are protected by the 1992 Copyright Law No. 40. Article 2 of this law mentions computer programs under the scope of protection. The draft amendment will introduce under the above-mentioned scope computer programs applications as well as compilations of data. The rental right is available under the existing law through the right of free exploitation provided for in the Article 14 of the 1992 Copyright Law. The draft amendment will introduce clearly the exclusive rights to exploit, under the rental right, literary works, including computer programs and cinematography work. The term of protection of copyright other than photography work is determined by the period of life of the owner and 25 years after his death. The draft amendment will extend this period to 50 years.

The 1992 Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights law No. 40 stipulates in its Article 4 that the copyrights shall be registered in the Ministry of Information and Culture and non-deposit of the work does not prejudice any of the protection aspects of the rights decided by the law. Article 33 stipulates that the Ministry of Information and Culture establishes a system for registration of copyrights and any actions that will occur on them. The bylaw of the 1992 Copyrights Law indicates the administrative procedures to be followed by the owners in pursuing depositing or registering actions.

The 1992 Copyrights Law No. 40 determines in its Article 14, as follows, the actions allowed without the consent of the owner of copyright: - the personal use of the work through copying or translating it. - The use of the work in the educational system with the purpose of the clarification through copies, programmes and reproductions for educational, cultural and religious purposes. The use must be in the necessary limit, provided that this will not seek any monetary profit and the name of the author and the origin of the work be indicated. - Quotation of paragraphs with the purpose of clarification, explanation and criticism and to the extent usually observed and necessary to reach the set objective, provided that the name of the author and the origin of the work be indicated. - Copying information and political, economic, social, cultural and religious press articles related to current events and their publication by newspapers as well as broadcasting works of like nature provided that the origin be mentioned. - Copying any audio or visual work relating to current events presented in broadcasting news and publishing it in the limit of the set objective and with the mention of the name of the author. - Public libraries, non-commercial documentation centers, educational and cultural and scientific institutes may copy protected works in the limit of the necessary needs, provided that this will not prejudice the author’s rights. - Newspapers and other news agencies may publish presentations made during judicial procedures and other similar works presented to the public, provided that the name of the author be mentioned. The amendments of the 1992 Copyrights law envisage reorganizing these provisions to cope with the TRIPS Agreement. The envisaged amendments are presented as follows: Without prejudice to literary rights of the author stipulated in the mentioned law, the author after the publication of his work must not prohibit a third person to perform one of the following acts: - To make a sole copy from the work for the merely non-commercial or professional but personal use, except the works of the fine and applied arts unless were located in public place. The works of architecture are also excepted. - To make a sole copy of computer programme with acknowledgement of its legitimate acquisitor who has a unit to derive from, provided that such act occurs in the limits of the licensed purpose or the purpose to retain or substitute at the time of losing the original, been damaged or became invalid to use. - Copying protected works to use them in judicial procedures or analogous to them within the limits required by such procedures provided that the source and the author name be mentioned. - Taking a sole copy of the work with acknowledgement of records house or archives, libraries, or documentation centers who do not seek direct or indirect profit all in the following two cases: (i) copying must be for the purpose of preservation of the original, or to exchange it for a lost, destroyed unsuitable to use or unobtainable copy against reasonable conditions; (ii) the purpose for copying must be in reply to application by a natural person to use it for research or study provided that it must be granted for one time or for interrupted periods of time provided that obtaining a license became impossible in accordance with the provisions of the law. - Quotation of short paragraphs, derivation or reasonable analysis of the work for the purpose of criticism, discussion, or information provided mentioning the source and the author’s name. - Performing the work in family meetings or by students in an educational institute against no direct or indirect remuneration. - Presenting the fine arts, applied and plastic arts works or architectural works in broadcasting programmes, if such works are permanently present in far places. - Reproduction of written, sound or audio-visual short excerpts for cultural, religious, educational or vocational training purposes provided that copying be in reasonable limits of its purpose and that the name of the author and the title of the work be mentioned wherever is possible and that the copying authority does not aim at direct or indirect profit and that license for copying was unobtainable in accordance with the provision of the law. Also under the same amendments, the author has no right to prohibit the copying made by newspapers, periodicals, broadcasting organizations within the limits justified by the aimed purpose to publish any of the following: - Excerpts of his available works to the public in a legal manner. This applies also on communicating excerpts from audio or visual works during current events, broadcasting or communicating them to the public by any other medium. The source and author’s name must be mentioned. - The published essays relating to discussion of issue preoccupying the public opinion in certain time, as long as no notification of prohibition was served at the time of publication provided that the source and author’s name must be mentioned. - Addresses, lectures, speeches recited in open sessions of parliamentary or judicial councils and public meetings as long as such lectures and speeches are addressed to the public and copied within the limits of copying the current news. All these restrictions on the economic rights of the authors are applied on the holders of neighbouring rights.

The 1992 Patent Law in its Article 2 provides that the provisions of this Law shall not contravene any international convention or treaty to which the UAE is a party, and which governs the rights of the nationals of the contracting States as well as the rights of the persons who are treated as such. Foreigners to whom the preceding paragraph does not apply shall have the same rights as are the nationals under this law, provided that they have the nationality of a state which applies the reciprocity principle to the UAE.

The 1992 Copyrights Law, Articles 37-44, provides for preventive measures and penalty including confiscation, the closing of the institution violating copyright and prison measures and compensation. The draft amendment will provide more detailed measures to enforce copyrights as referred to in the TRIPS Agreement. The obligations arising from Article 9 of the TRIPS Agreement (Berne Convention Articles 1-21 except Article 6bis) will be met through the extension of the scope in terms of the various categories and subjects of copyright as well as the nature of the protection.

Computer programs are protected by the 1992 Copyright Law No. 40. Article 2 of this law mentions computer programs under the scope of protection. The draft amendment will introduce under the above-mentioned scope computer programs and their applications as well as compilations of data.

The rental right is available under the existing law through the right of free exploitation provided for in the Article 14 of the 1992 Copyright Law. The draft amendment will introduce clearly the exclusive rights to exploit, under the rental right, literary works, including computer programs and cinematography work.

The term of protection of copyright other than photography work is determined by the period of life of the owner and 25 years after he dead. The draft amendment will extend this period to 50 years.

The 1992 Copyrights and Neighboring rights law No. 40 law includes performances among protected works. To conform to the TRIPS Agreement, the amendment to this law envisages to precise the rights of performers who shall enjoy the following economic rights: - The right to transmit their unfixed performance and communicating it to the public; - The right to fix their performance on a phonogram; - The right to reproduce their fixed performance on a phonogram. In this respect, the amendment will considers prohibited any fixation of such live performance on a phonogram for direct or indirect commercial revenue, rental, transmission or availability to the public on any medium by third person without authorization of the right holder. As far as the term of the protection is concerned, the law provides for a period of fifty years protection to be calculated from the beginning of the next calendar year in which the performance was accomplished. If the performance was fixed in a phonogram, the period would be calculated from the end of the year in which the fixation was made.

The amendment to the 1992 Copyright law will provide for the protection of the rights of producers of phonograms. It will state that the producers of phonograms shall enjoy the following rights: - The right to prohibit any exploitation of their phonograms by any means without their authorization. The law prohibits copying, rental, broadcasting, re-broadcasting, availability to the public by third parties. - The right to disseminate their recordings via wire, wireless, computer or other means. The term of the protection will be fifty calendar years calculated from the beginning of the next year in which the publication of the phonogram was done or the year in which the phonogram was fixed if it was not published.

The 1992 Trademarks Law No. 37 considers as trademark the following: Names, words, signatures, letters, numbers, drawings, symbols, addresses, hallmarks, stamps, pictures, vignettes, notices, packages or any other mark or combination of marks having a distinctive form and used or meant to be used- in distinguishing goods or products of whatever origin, or in showing that the goods or products are owned by the owner of the trademark because he manufactured it or selected it or traded in it, or rendered a service under it. A sound shall be considered part of the trademark if it was accompanying it.

The 1992 Trademarks Law No. 37 Article 5 provides that the Ministry of Economy and Commerce shall keep a register to be called "Trademarks Register" which shall be registered all trademarks, names and addresses of their owners, type of their activity, description of their goods or products or services and any assignment or transfer of ownership or change of license to use or any other amendments. The Law stipulates that every person may apply for a true copy of the contents of the said register upon payment of the prescribed fees. Article 6 of the same law states that the following persons shall have the right to register their trademarks: - UAE natural and moral persons who exercise any commercial, industrial, handicraft or services activity. - Non-UAE natural or moral persons who exercise any commercial, industrial, handicraft or services activity in the UAE. - Non-UAE natural or moral persons who exercise any commercial, industrial, handicraft or services activity in any country which grant the UAE reciprocal treatment. - Public moral persons. Articles 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the 1992 Trademarks law No. 37 as well as the 1993 Ministerial Decision No. 6 lay down detailed conditions and procedures governing registration of trademarks in the UAE. Article 7 states that each person desiring to use a trademark to distinguish any goods or products or services may apply for registering it. Article 17 of the 1992 Trademarks law No. 37 considers the person who has a trademark registered in his name its exclusive owner. Article 20 provides for the owner's right to remove the trademark from the register. It provides also that if the owner of the mark has granted, by contract, to a third person a license to use the mark, the said mark may not be removed from the register except upon written consent of the licensee unless the licensee expressly renounces his right in the license agreement. Articles 27-28 and 29 lay down the holder’s right of transferring the ownership of a trademark and the conditions under which the transfer, levying a charge or seizure related to a trademark are made. Articles 30-31-32-33 and 34 organize the license contracting, which is stated by the law as a right of the trademark holder. Articles 37 defines the penalties with regard to the counterfeiting, imitating, misleading the public, fraudulent use of registered trademark.

Article 19 of the 1992 Trademarks law limits the duration of the protection of a registered trademark to ten years with the possibility of renewal for further consecutive periods of ten years each.