Within the process of WTO accession Kazakhstan has increased efforts in order to improve protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. National legislation was significantly amended in order to bring it in full compliance with the WTO rules. Statistic data for 2015-2016 shows that despite decrease in number of inspections, number of cases on infringement of intellectual property that were revealed is still growing. Every year the Ministry of Justice regularly hold the national campaign "CONTRAFACT" aimed at prevention and detection of infringements as well as persons involved in illegal production and dissemination of goods. It must be mentioned that beyond this campaign number of government bodies involved in economic, anticorruption, financial and criminal investigations also take part in everyday intellectual property rights enforcement actions.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan developed and in November 2016 submitted to the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan a draft Law "On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on improvement in the field of intellectual property law".
The purpose of the draft Law - further improvement of the legislation in the field of intellectual property, development of scientific and technological progress and free competition, simplification of registration procedures, elimination of legal gaps and exclusion rules that create administrative barriers in the field of intellectual property.
Drafting of the Law involved participation of the relevant public authorities, National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan "Atameken", non-governmental organizations, representatives of the Foreign Investors Council, Members of the Council for improvement of the investment climate, patent attorneys.
Preparation of the draft Law was carried upon reflection on the experiences of the OECD countries.
Discussions of the proposed amendments involved participation of experts and judges from several OECD countries (Germany, Japan, France, the United States) and Russian Federation.
The main new features of the draft Law are as follows:
• creation of a single-level intellectual property registration system by delegating to the expert organization (RSE "National Institute of Intellectual Property") of the authority to issue registration rights on intellectual property;
• expansion of the pre-trial examination possibility related to trademark registration disputes;
• publication of trademark applications from the moment their arrival to the expert organization;
• simplification of the registration of contracts.
