Copyright registration in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. As a result of implementing a record number of reforms mainly involving institutional changes among the 10 top improvers, Azerbaijan has become a favorable destination for conducting business. With the new policies, the time and cost to get a construction permit are reduced significantly here. Furthermore, the process of connecting the electricity grid rationalized, as well as getting credit is becoming more simplified. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Azerbaijan.
Copyright in Azerbaijan
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created in a certain material form, regardless of content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, copyright registration is still advised because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has registered copyright in advance will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1999.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Azerbaijan is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Azerbaijan will be given the same copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries. The original from Azerbaijan can be that the work is made and published for the first time in this country or if the author of the work is of Azerbaijan ethnicity.
While in most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form, copyright registration in Azerbaijan is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when copyright is obtained automatically.
When registering, the work – the subject matter of the application gets a date and a time stamp recorded, as well as information about the work and proof of work concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a significantly big amount of money and time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
In some cases, they might not win as the burden of legal fees overwhelm them. There might be other reasons such as the pressure from the big organizations and the fact of time-consuming when pursuing the fight.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would get a strong foundation and legal claims even if those situations happen, increasing their chance of winning.
Documents for copyright registration in Azerbaijan
To register for copyright protection in Azerbaijan, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Azerbaijan
The status of copyright law and its protection within Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction is regulated by the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed in 1996.
The Law on Copyright and Related Rights of Azerbaijan regulates the relations that arise while creating or using scientific and literary works, as well as works of art. According to this law, adjacent rights to performances, phonograms, and the transfer of broadcasting and cable broadcasting organizations are also streamlined. The Law was amended in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2021.
Azerbaijan is one of the 190 members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
In Azerbaijan, legislative acts related to copyright and related rights are:
- Law on Entrepreneurship (December 15, 1992)
- Law on Culture (December 21, 2012)
- The Act on the Theaters (December 26, 2006)
- Law on Cinematography (July 3, 1998)
- Law on Broadcasting (June 25, 2002)
- Law on Advertising and others (May 15, 2015)
- Law on e-commerce (January 1, 2017)
- Law on Electronic Signature and Electronic Document Management (March 9, 2004)
You can find a list of Azerbaijan IP firms here.