Legal Environment
The area of intellectual property rights of software is an emerging legal field in Bolivia due to the country’s recent entrée into the computerized world. Bolivia’s existing legislation governing intellectual property rights is quite weak and enforcement efforts to date have been ineffective. The government is taking steps to upgrade its intellectual property rights legislation and Bolivia has agreed to a modification of the Andean Community Decisions 313/344. This legislation will be used as a model for Bolivia to draft its internal intellectual property rights laws.
In 1992 Bolivia passed the Bolivian Copyright Law which guarantees intellectual property rights for scientific, artistic, and scientific works for the life of the author plus 50 years. While this law also covers software and databases, additional legislation is needed to keep pace with the changing demands of the software and computer industries. In 1998 Bolivia joined the World Intellectual Property Organization. Bolivia was expected to be in full compliance of the WTO’s TRIPS by April 1999.
In addition, Bolivia does grant patents for a period of 15 years and trademarks for a period of 10 years. However, the patents must be used within two years of issuance and the trademark within 18 months of issuance or they become null and void.
