Administrative raid actions against small business are put on hold in Kazakhstan
On December 26th, 2019 the President of Kazakhstan signed a Decree No. 229, according to which all central executive bodies shall put on hold the administrative inspections (raid actions connected with visiting) against small business entities. Small business entities shall correspond to the following requirements:
A. Average annual number of employees shall be less than 100 people; AND
B. Average annual income 300 000 MCI[1].
The term of such suspension started on January 1, 2020 and shall end on January 1, 2023.
The Decree No. 229 also provides certain exemptions, when the inspections can still be conducted. Unfortunately, the inspections related to intellectual property rights, specifically related to trademark rights infringements, are also put on hold, and are currently not exempted.
It shall be noted that the administrative raid actions against small business entities are being conducted by the Justice Departments. This has been an utmost effective instrument for most of the trademark owners for a number of years. Now the Justice Departments continue the administrative raid actions only against the medium and big business entities, and also against the individuals, who did not register the official business.
We understand that this situation may influence the brand protection strategy of our clients because most of the infringers involved into the counterfeiting are corresponding the requirements of small business entity, and even if they did not – it may be expected that medium infringers might re-organize the business so that it consists of several small business entities instead of one medium entity.
At the same time we strongly believe that counterfeiting and other trademark rights infringements are quite massive, and in most cases potentially cause massive threat to the law and public order, may also cause massive threat to the environment and sometimes even to life and health of population.
Meanwhile, the lawyers of our company are ready to propose alternative, though sometimes less effective, ways of enforcing the trademark rights. We have vast experience in pre-court settlement, in civil and criminal procedures, domain name disputes and on-line infringements, customs measures, etc. Moreover, we render the same and even more services in the other countries of the region – Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Mongolia. We shall be happy to assist with any IP issues in our region.
Please contact us via telephone or e-mail:
Bolotov & Partners LLP
60 Auezov Str., 6th floor, office 20, Almaty 050008, Kazakhstan
+7 (727) 357 23 80
[1] Monthly calculated index. In 2020 it is 1 MCI = 2651 KZT, approx. US $7; 300 000 MCI = approx. US $2 112 300
