Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr I. Khalilova / The Swiss Government will begin rendering technical assistance to Azerbaijan in bringing its intellectual property system closer to the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) starting at the beginning of 2008, according to the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry.
"The negotiations will be completed by the end of 2007 and the project of the agreement on technical assistance will be signed," according to the Ministry. The assistance will be rendered by the Swiss State Secretariat on Economic Issues (Seco). The targets of the project have been defined and the amount of the grant is being exacted.
Firstly, the project envisages observation and provision of protection of intellectual property covering authorship and industrial property (patents, trade marks, etc). Secondly, the project will bring Azerbaijan's legislation forward in this field, especially regarding procedures on revealing pirated goods at the border, punishment norms, and storage, so that they are closer to the WTO's requirements and international practice. Amendments in the Civil and Criminal Code are also required.
The project will involve the Authorship Agency, the State Agency on Standardization, Patent, and Metrology, and the State Customs Committee.