The granting of compulsory licences is regulated under Articles 39 and 40 of the Law on Industrial Property and Article 22 of the Law No. 8477 dated 22 April 1999 (General Provisions on Compulsory Licences): 1) On the request of any person who proves his ability to work the patented invention in the Republic of Albania, made after the expiration of a period of four years from the filing date of the application for the patent or three years from the grant of the patent, whichever is later, the Patent Office may grant a non-exclusive, non-voluntary licence if the patented invention is not worked or is insufficiently worked in the Republic of Albania. The grant of the non-voluntary licence shall be subject to the payment of equitable remuneration to the owner of the patent. 2) A non-voluntary licence shall not be granted if the Patent Office is convinced that circumstances exist which justify the non-working or insufficient working of the patented invention in the Republic of Albania. 3) In deciding whether to grant a non-voluntary licence, the Patent Office shall give both the owner of the patent and the person requesting the non-voluntary licence an adequate opportunity to present arguments. 4) Any non-voluntary licence shall be revoked when the circumstances which led to its granting cease to exist, taking into account the legitimate interests of the patent owner and of the licensee. The continued existence of these circumstances shall be reviewed upon request of the patent owner Where the national security or public safety so requires, the Prime Minister may authorize, even without the agreement of the owner of the patent or of the applicant, by notice published in the Official Journal, a government agency or a person designated in the said notice to make, use or sell an invention to which a patent or a patent application for a patent relates, subject to payment of equitable remuneration to the owner of the patent or the applicant. The decision of the Prime Minister may be subject of an appeal to the Court. 1) An applicant for a compulsory licence shall be required to prove that the requirements for a compulsory licence have been complied with, and further that: a) the patentee was unwilling to grant a voluntary licence to exploit the patent under appropriate conditions and within a reasonable period of time; b) he is able to exploit the invention to the required extent. 2) The scope and duration of a compulsory licence shall be established by the court, taking into account the purpose of the exploitation authorized by the compulsory licence; a compulsory licence may be granted with or without limitation. Unless relinquished or cancelled, a compulsory licence shall have effect until expiration of the term of validity fixed by the court or until the lapse of patent protection. Compulsory licences shall be recorded in the Patent Register. 3) The patentee shall receive adequate compensation for the compulsory licence, which shall be fixed, failing agreement between the parties, by the court. The compensation shall take into adequate account the economic value of the compulsory licence. In particular, it shall be commensurate with the royalty the holder of the compulsory licence would have paid on the basis of an exploitation contract concluded with patentee, taking into account the licensing conditions in the technical field of the invention. 4) The holder of a compulsory licence shall have the same rights as the patentee in regard to the maintenance of the patent and exercise of the rights deriving from protection. 5) A compulsory licence may not be assigned or transferred to any other person. Compulsory licences are non-exclusive and non-transferable, even in the form of sublicence, except with that part of the enterprise or goodwill which exploits such licence. The holder of the compulsory licence may not grant a licence of exploitation. 6) The holder of a compulsory licence may relinquish his compulsory licence at any time. If the holder does not begin exploitation within one year from the definitive grant of the compulsory licence, the patentee may claim modification or cancellation of the compulsory licence. 7) The patentee may request modification or cancellation of a compulsory licence if the circumstances on which it was based cease to exist and are unlikely to occur again. Modification or cancellation shall take a form that does not prejudice the legitimate interests of the holder of the compulsory licence.

A compulsory licence will only be granted if the applicant has previously made efforts to obtain a contractual license from the patent holder on reasonable commercial terms and conditions and these efforts have not been successful within a reasonable period of time. The expression "reasonable period of time" has to be determined by the competent authority on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the relevant circumstances. Concerning the use predominantly for the home market, as one of the conditions under which a compulsory license will be granted, Article 39 stipulates that it must be used within the territory of the Republic of Albania, which in conformity with Article 31(f) of the TRIPS Agreement.

Article 28, paragraph 5 of the law provides for additional protection only for pharmaceutical products. It states that the term of a patent for invention related to pharmaceutical products can be extended over 20 years, but no more than 5 years.

Our Law on Industrial Property does not provide additional protection based on the date of filing of the patent application. All patents are granted in conformity with the standards of protection specified in the TRIPS Agreement and the Albanian laws on industrial property.

Our law provides for such a principle according to Articles 41-42, where it is stated: 1) Subject to this Law, the performance of any act referred to in Article 27(1), (2) and (4) in Albania by a person other than the owner of the patent, and without the consent of the latter, in relation to a product or process falling within the scope of protection of the patent shall constitute an infringement of the patent. 2) Subject to this Law, the performance of any act referred to in Article 27(1), (2) and (4) in Albania by a person other than the applicant, and without the consent of the applicant, in relation to a product or process falling within the scope of provisional protection conferred on a published patent application under Article 20(3) shall constitute an infringement of that provisional protection. 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. Articles 12, 14 and 17 of the Civil Procedure Code also provide for the principle of the reversal of the burden of proof in a process patent litigation.

Law No. 8488, dated 13 May 1999 "On protection of topographies of integrated circuits" provides for protection as follows: Chapter I - Basic provisions; Chapter II - Subjects of protection; Chapter III - Common regulations for the procedure of protection; Chapter IV - Contents, terms and limitation of rights; Chapter V - Procedure for protection and registration; Chapter VI -Invalidation of the register; Chapter VII - Infringement of the right and compensation of the damage; Chapter VIII - Transitional and final provisions.

Article 9 of our law is in full compliance with Article 36 of the TRIPS Agreement: The holder of the protected topography shall be granted exclusive rights of commercial exploitation, including the right to authorize or prohibited any of the following acts: - reproduction of the topography by any means or in any form; - importation, sale or other form of distribution of the topography or products that include integrated circuit incorporating the respective topography. The exclusive rights referred to in Paragraph 1 shall not extend to any concept, process, system or technical embodied in the topography other than the topography itself.

With regard to Article 37 of the TRIPS Agreement, Article 16 of our law reads: "A person who commercially exploits an integrated circuit incorporating the protected topography, and does not know, or has no reasonable grounds to believe that the topography of the product is protected shall not be prevented from commercially exploiting that integrated circuit". Compensation, the amounts of which depends on the scope of commercial exploitation of protected topography, may be claimed from the person referred to in Paragraph 1, by the right holder of the protected topography from the date when the person referred to in Paragraph 1 has known, or has had reasonable grounds to believe that the topography is protected. The amount of compensation under Paragraph 2 shall be agreed upon between the right holder of the protected topography and the person referred to in Paragraph 1. If no agreement is achieved, the Court of Justice in Tirana shall decide on the amount of compensation. The provisions of Paragraph 2 shall apply also to the successors in title of the person referred to in Paragraph 2. The right of commercial exploitation is limited to importation, sale or distribution of the products of integrated circuits or other products incorporating the respective topography, and this right applies to a topography or products that were on hand at the time when the claim under Paragraph 2 was received.

According to the Article 10 of the law: The exclusive rights shall expire after 10 years from the earlier of the following dates: - the end of the calendar year in which the topography is first commercially exploited anywhere in the world; or - the end of the calendar year in which the application has been filed in due form. The exclusive rights shall expire before the period defined in Paragraph 3, if the respective fees are not paid or if the right holder of the protected topography renounces protections in writing. If a topography has not been commercially exploited, the exclusive rights shall expire after 15 years from its fixation or encoding.

Albanian Competition Law protects business secrets, including trade secrets. Article 49.1 of the law prohibits disclosing business or operative secrets of competitors in an illegal manner or encouraging the competitors' employees to do so. Article 49.2 forbids using or giving others business or operative secrets obtained in the course of employment or other confidential relations during the term of those relations in order to gain competitive advantage for oneself or a third party or to damage the owner of a commercial company. The obligation continues for a period of two years after the employment or confidential relationship is terminated if the owner of the business or operative secret has a justifiable interest and the obligation does not unreasonably restrict the business or professional activity of others. Albanian pharmaceutical legislation does not grant any defined period of time for the protection of undisclosed information. Neither the legislation on plant protection products.

The Regulation of the Commission of the Verification of Manufacturing Conditions of Pharmaceuticals and the Regulation for the Registration of Pharmaceuticals (amended) constitute the Albanian legislation dealing with undisclosed information in this field. Both regulations do not define explicitly what an undisclosed information is. But in both of them, it is defined what kind of information must be presented by manufacturers: all documents presented by the manufacturer to take the approval for the manufacturing of drugs and all documents which comprise the drug dossier for obtaining marketing authorization. The regulation defines that the documentation which is confidential is deposited in the National Center of Drugs Control and remains as exclusive property of Albanian authorities that are engaged in the drug registration procedure. (Regulation of the Commission of the Verification of manufacturing Conditions of Pharmaceuticals, point 12; Regulation for the Registration of Pharmaceuticals (amended), point 21) In the field of veterinary, Regulation No. 4, dated 30 December 1999 "On the registration of the veterinary drugs" based on Law No. 7674, dated 23 February 1996 "On the veterinary service and inspectorate", Article 14 points 2, 3 and 4 define clearly the procedure of registration of any medicine imported and locally produced. The registration is made in the state register - it is valid for 5 years and, when necessary, can be renewed in conformity with the procedure fixed by European Union directives on this problem. The registration is considered done after the issuing of the Minister Order. The document is conserved in the Commission of Drugs Registration in the Veterinary Division.

On plant protection products, the data deposited by the interested companies asking for the permission to market such products in the Republic of Albania, are protected by Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 72 dated 15 February 2001 "On the approval of the regulation of plant protection products". In Article 6 of this regulation is defined that the protection of data is made on the basis of the request of the applicant and there is no a defined period of time for their protection. Albania protects data submitted to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical or agricultural chemicals utilizing a new chemical entity. For the protection of their confidentiality, in the Regulation of the Commission of the Verification of Manufacturing Conditions on Pharmaceutical point 12 is defined: "After the verification from the Commission, documentation which is confidential is deposited in National Center of Drugs Control together with a copy of authorization."

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).

According to Article 18 of the Administrative Procedures Code, in order to protect constitutional and legal rights of private persons, the administrative activity is submitted to: a) the interior administrative control; b) the judicial control. According to Article 97 of the Law on Industrial Property (as amended by Law No. 8477, dated 22 April 1999), a Board of Appeal shall be established for the review of the disputes relating to patents, trademarks, industrial designs and appellations of origin within the structure of the Directorate of Patents and Trademarks which shall act in accordance with the law. Paragraph 4 of Article 82(2) of the Law amended states: The decision of the Board of Appeal on the conformity of the application with the requirements of Articles 73(3)(4) of this Law shall be final. The applicant may, within six months from the date of decisions, appeal against other decision of the Board of Appeal to the Court. Article 57 of the Law on Industrial Property provides for appeal to the Court of Appeal of decisions of the Regional Court in Tirana on patent disputes. The Implementing Provisions of the Customs Code, under Point 119.3, constitute that: "Against the decision of General Directorate of Customs concerning the suspension or not of the infringing goods, the applicant may, lodge an appeal to the court according to the procedures provided under Point 19(4) and 20(5) of the Customs Code." And Point Article 120.3 underlines that if within 20 days from notification of the seizure of goods or from the decision to suspend the release of the goods, the customs authorities do not receive a copy of the appeal lodged with the competent authorities by the holder of the right, the customs authorities revoke the decision to suspend the release of the goods or the seizure of the goods and release the goods.

As a rule the judicial authorities have the authority, subject at all times to the right of defence, to order any of the parties to submit documentation or any other type of evidence at their disposal that could be useful in clarifying the rights of the disputing parties, whether or not such evidence is held by the parties or by third persons. Specifically under Article 223 of the Albanian Civil Procedure Code it is stated: "On the request of the interested party, the court may order the other party to present in trial a document or another thing when this is estimated as necessary by the court. In this case the court gives the necessary instructions on the time, place and manner of their presentation. The party which has requested the acquisition of the document is obliged to indicate in detail all the circumstances which make credible as to where the document is, its characteristics as well as the facts which shall be proved by this document". Whatever the type of action or proceedings, the judicial authorities are under an obligation to prevent the wrongful publication of confidential information brought forward in court or obtained by the court in the course of the dispute. In conformity with Article 26 of the Code of Civil Procedure, Article 173 of the same Code cites some cases where, by a justified decision of the Court, the trial is allowed to be held in a session entirely or partially behind closed doors. One of these cases is when trade, or invention secrets, the publication of which would affect interests protected by law, are mentioned. Article 26 of this Code states that the court may no allow the participation of press organs when it estimates that such participation is not to the benefit of the case.

Articles 42, 70 and 89 of the Law on Industrial Property (cited in question 46) authorize the court to enjoin patent, industrial designs and trademark infringements. Article 243 of the Criminal Procedural Code states: "By the decision disposing the prohibition to exercise specific professions or managing duties to legal entities, the judge prohibits temporarily the defendant entirely or partly to exercise activities connected with them." Article 240 of the same Code foresees as interdictive measures: - suspension from exercise of a public duty or service; - temporary prohibition from exercise of specific professional or business activities. According to Article 288(a) of Penal Code, 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.

Article 42, 70 and 89 of the Law on Industrial Property already cited authorize the court to award compensation for patent, industrial designs and trademark infringements. Treating the content of the court decision, Article 310 of the Albanian Civil Procedure Code states that this decision must contain the introduction, the descriptive justifying part and the ordering. In the ordering part, among others must be mentioned who is charged with the judicial expenses. Under Section IV "Rules on determining value of lawsuit", Article 68 of this Code states: "When a sum of money or a removable thing is requested, the value is determined on the basis of the amount indicated or of the value declared by the plaintiff. In the absence of indication or of declaration, it is accepted that the determination of the value is a competence of the court."

The Code of Civil Procedure constitutes the right of any person, according to the law, to claim compensation of costs and damages caused by the infringer. Under Article 106 it is stated among others: In its final decision, the court charges the party whose lawsuit has been dropped, to pay the judicial expenses in conformity with Article 102 of this Code including the payment for one advocate.

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 an 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. Under Implementing Provisions of the Customs Code, Point 120(1) it is stated that "when customs authorities are satisfied after consulting the applicant if necessary, that goods or part of the goods referred to on Point 119(1)(a) and (b), correspond to the description of the counterfeit or pirated goods contained in the decision of the General Directorate of Customs, they suspend the release of the goods or provide for the seizure of the goods depending on the situation". Article 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code states: "When grounded reasons to think that someone hides real evidence of criminal offence or objects belonging to criminal offence exist, the court renders a decision regarding completion of inspection of the person. When these objects are in a certain place inspection of the place or of the house is ordered", and Article 207: "The objects which are found during the inspection may be attached in compliance with provisions on attachment".

The Code of Civil Procedure constitutes the right of any person, according to the law, to claim compensation of costs and damages caused by the infringer. Under Article 106 it is stated among others: In its final decision, the Court charges the party whose lawsuit has been dropped, to pay the judicial expenses in conformity with Article 102 of this Code including the payment for one advocate. Under Implementing Provisions on the Customs Code, Point 120.4 and 119.4 it is stated that "the plaintiff is obliged to forward payment of all eventual charges related to the warehousing of the goods and is responsible for any damage caused to the defendant/ importer or a third party".