According to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan unfair competition means any actions related to competition aimed at achieving or providing illegal advantages. Unfair competition is prohibited.

Unfair competition includes the following actions:

• illegal use of means of individualization of goods, works, services and objects of copyright;
• illegal use of goods from another producer;
• copying the appearance of a product;
• undermining the market participant;
• deliberately false, unfair and inaccurate advertising;
• sale (purchase) of goods with a compulsory assortment;
• call for a boycott of a competitor’s seller (supplier);
• call for discrimination of a buyer (supplier);
• call the market participant to break the contract with a competitor;
• bribing an employee of a seller (supplier);
• bribing an employee of a buyer;
• illegal use of information constituting a commercial secret;
• the sale of goods providing inaccurate information to the consumer in relation to nature, method and place of production, consumer properties, quality and quantity of goods or in relation to its producers;
• incorrect comparison of goods produced and (or) sold by market participants with goods produced and (or) sold by other market participants. Illegal use of a company name, trademark, service mark and (or) other commercial designation of an entrepreneur that introduces or may mislead consumer in relation to producer or seller of goods (works, services);

One of the most common types of infringement related to competition is illicit use of third party’s trademark, service mark, company name, appellation of origin or similar designations for similar goods or its use without right holder’s or authorized person’s consent. Such use misleads the consumer in relation to the nature, method and place of production, consumer properties, quality and quantity of goods or in relation to its producers.

Bolotov and Partners’ team has extensive experience in preventing various forms of unfair competition and advertising, which was implemented in relation to both Kazakhstani and international foreign clients.

In company’s practice there are many examples of successful suppression of illegal actions related to unfair competition. Among them, such cases as preventing consumers from misleading in relation to true producers, banning sales and advertising by unfair competitors of goods with illegal use of trademarks and many others.

We offer following services in the sphere of protection of rights and fighting unfair competition:

• Drafting and forwarding warning letters to intellectual property rights infringers;
• Preparation and forwarding applications related to illegal use of intellectual property items to the customs authorities and police in order to bring infringers to administrative or criminal responsibility;
• Preparation and forwarding statement of claims to the courts in order to reimburse expenses and losses related to exclusive rights infringement;
• Monitoring and identification of counterfeit products;
• Extension of terms of inclusion of trademarks into the Customs Registry of Intellectual Property Items;
• Work with cases connected with suspension of goods;
• Participation in raids and investigation activities;
• Extension of terms of inclusion of trademarks into the Customs Registry of Intellectual Property Items.

In this section, information concerning the section UNFAIR COMPETITION is published.

• Something About Marketplaces For Sellers
• Checklist for importers – trademarks
• Distribution of counterfeited goods in Kazakhstan
• Report KONTRAFAKT in Kazakhstan project
• Enforcement of Trademark Rights in Kazakhstan
• Protection of trademarks using customs measures

All publications

Zhanat Nurmagambetov

Enforcement and Customs

Requests relating to section Intellectual Property Rights Protection – UNFAIR COMPETITION can be forwarded to e-mail address: info@bolotovIP.com marked for Zhanat Nurmagambetov.