Who owns IP: the country or its creators?

An excerpt from the interview with Mr. Alexander Shumilin, Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus to the journal “ Director General”.

- Intellectual property (IP): inventions, utility models, industrial designs – is it all the property of the country or its creators? How does the state protect progressive ideas?

- Innovative development of Belarus is inextricably linked to the creation and implementation of new and breakthrough results of scientific and technical activities.

One of the key conditions for ensuring the effective use of such results is the availability of a modern system of IP protection, management and enforcement. Such a system has been created in Belarus.

Belarusian legislation in the IP field not only meets international standards, but also, most importantly, allows you to choose the method of IP rights protection and enforcement and use it for regulating public relations to increase the competitiveness of the national economy.

One of the main tasks of IP legal regulation is maintenance of a balance between public interests and the rights of creators. To date, legal mechanisms allow the author to receive remuneration for his creative work, and the society and state are provided with the opportunity to use the results of this work subject to the established requirements.

In our country, the governing body that pursues state policy and regulates IP rights protection is the State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus. Direct protection of IP rights is provided by the state institution "National Center of Intellectual Property". It also performs certain functions of a patent office determined by legislation.

The effectiveness of existing IP system is proved, first of all, by the turnover of rights to IP objects. The IP market is actively developing in the Republic of Belarus. Thus, in 2019, 778 agreements for industrial property objects were registered, of which 109 are for complex entrepreneurial licenses (franchising). In total, by the beginning of this year, 6,410 license agreements, as well as 4,930 industrial property concession agreements were concluded. The IP economy has also shown significant development rates in recent years. Thus, at the end of the year, the export of services connected with payments for the use of IP exceeded USD 100 million.

The full text of the interview can be found on the official website of the State Committee on Science and Technology of the Republic of Belarus.