Azerbaijan

Intellectual property rights in Azerbaijan cover all industrial property rights and copyright/copyright. The regulation of intellectual property rights is contained in a number of national and international legislative texts.

. Internationally, the country has signed numerous agreements and treaties on the subject such as the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property, the Madrid Agreement and its Protocol, and the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty.

The Law on Trademarks and Geographical Indications (1998) regulates the registration procedure, use and protection of trademarks and geographical indications at the national level. In the field of international trademarks, Azerbaijan è signatory to the Madrid Agreement and its Protocol. The foreign investor intending to expand his business in the Republic of Azerbaijan will have the opportunity to extend the registration of his national trademark in the country by following the traditional procedure of filing the extension application directly with the authorities at which the initial filing was made, who will then forward the application to the WIPO offices.

The extension of the national trademark in Azerbaijan is for ten years from the filing date, with the possibility of indefinite renewal every ten years.

The Law on Patents (1997) regulates property and related personal non-patrimonial relationships arising from the creation, protection and exploitation of inventions, utility models and industrial designs. For what concerns the protection granted to nationally registered patents, Azerbaijani law grants them a 20-year term while for utility models and industrial designs, protection lasts for 10 years from the date of filing.

A foreign natural or legal person can aspire to be granted the same rights with regard to the protection of its inventions as a domestic subject, where such treatment derives from international treaties signed by Azerbaijan. In this regard, Azerbaijan has signed the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 1970. Consequently, foreign entrepreneurs interested in the extension of their national patent in Azerbaijan will have to follow the procedure stipulated in the convention. In Italy, for example, it will be necessary to file the extension application with the UIBM, which will subsequently forward it to WIPO.

The term of the international patent è is 20 years from the date of filing the application.

The Republic of Azerbaijan è also a member of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) – an intergovernmental institution founded in 1995 pursuant to the Convention of the same name. The EAPO is responsible for the regulation and granting of Eurasian patents. The protection granted to industrial inventions involves a single procedure for natural and legal persons aimed at the recognition of a single patent valid in the Convention signatory countries. Eurasian patent registration is valid for 20 years from the date of application.

The Law on Copyright and Related Rights (1996) protects the creation and exploitation of copyrights (scientific, literary and artistic works) as well as so-called related rights (performances, phonograms, programs of broadcasting or cable distribution organizations). This law represented the highest expression of the process of liberalization of copyright in Azerbaijan, originally based on Soviet monopolistic logics. The principles that to this day underpin the system of authorial protection are the same as in European countries, first and foremost the conception of copyright as a personal right and the recognition of moral rights.

Copyright arises from the creation of the work and takes effect throughout the author's lifetime. Inheritance rights are also recognized, for a period of 50 years after the author's death.

The trade relations that characterize Italy and the Republic of Azerbaijan are firm and well established. Azerbaijan represents the main supplier of crude oil, refined oil, petroleum gas, fertilizer and gold to Italy: only during the first half of 2023, Italy’s exports accounted for 45% of the Republic’s total exports. As for imports, Italy holds the ninth place among Azerbaijan's supplier countries. Overall, the country’s foreign trade has been growing by 15 percent in recent years.

These figures – combined with the rapid post-pandemic recovery and its gradual establishment as a hydrocarbon exporting country – make Azerbaijan an extremely attractive country.

The relationship between Azerbaijan and the European Union appears to be based on mutual understandings. Already in 1996, the member countries and the republic signed the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, and in July 2022 è a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation was launched in order to strengthen commercial supply relations by freeing themselves from fossil fuels from Russia. To date, the European Union is the republic’s main trading partner, reaching a total overall trade share of 52 percent in 2022.

The franchise contract finds its regulation in the Azerbaijani Civil Code which defines it as a kind of long-term liability relationship on the basis of which independent enterprises, when necessary, engage each other through the performance of specific obligations to contribute to the production, sale of goods and provision of services.

Azerbaijani law requires the parties to adopt the written form and specify the exact content of mutual obligations, duration, conditions of termination and renewal as well as other essential elements provided for in the provisions on contracts in general. A peculiarity of the Azerbaijani franchise regulations concerns the duration, which – if it exceeds 10 years – entitles either party to terminate the contract but – in the event that neither party avails itself of the option to terminate – the contract is deemed extended by two years.

The obligations provided for the franchisor and the franchisee are those traditionally provided for in the franchise contract: the franchisor è obliged to hand over to the franchisee its industrial patents, industrial methods, technologies as well as any other information necessary for the franchisee so that the latter can market the former’s goods and/or services; on the other hand, the franchisee è required to pay a price calculated taking into account the difficulty in the implementation of the franchise system, also complying’with’the obligation of diligence of the honest entrepreneur. There is also a generic duty on the parties to compete fairly following the conclusion of the agreement. By way of example, the code provides that the franchisee is prohibited from bidding within the boundaries of a given area for a maximum period of one year.