Information Technology Landscape in

ESTONIA

                                  Legal Environment

Intellectual Property Rights

Reform in the field of the intellectual property law began in 1991 with the foundation of the State Patent Office, established for the purpose of protection of intellectual property in the Republic of Estonia. The contemporary Estonian industrial property legislation includes the Trademark Act (passed on August 27, 1992), Copyright Act (passed on November 11, 1992), Patent Act, and Utility Models Act (both passed on March 16, 1994), Protection of Geographical Indications Act (passed on December 15,1999).

Besides the implemented national legislation, Estonia has joined several international treaties, including the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 1970.The Permanent Copyright Committee that was created at the Ministry of Culture in June 1999. According to the Estonian Copyright Act one of the tasks of the Committee is to provide an overview of compliance of copyright and related rights protection in Estonia with the international commitments taken by Estonia to the Government of the Republic twice a year and, if necessary, to make proposals for the improvement of activities in this field.

Also, in May 2000 a special unit was formed to the Tallinn Police Department in order to fight piracy in our market more efficiently. Training courses are continuing for police, customs authorities and judges.

Nevertheless, despite all this, United States is considering putting Estonia on its special watchlist for countries, which have problems providing effective intellectual property protection. Estonia is currently a very serious pirate market domestically, and serves as a major warehouse and exporter of material throughout the region. These commercial pirate activities are substantially damaging markets not only in Estonia, but also in the Scandinavian countries (Finland and Sweden) and other parts of Eastern and Western Europe. The most serious enforcement problem in Estonia is its role as a regional distributor of illegal material, including optical media material. Pirated material – audio CDs, CD-ROMs containing entertainment and business software, videos and audiocassettes, and videogame cartridges – regularly moves between Estonia and neighboring countries due to poor border enforcement. Material that enters Estonia from other countries is warehoused there due to poor on-the-ground enforcement, and then shipped to other countries in Eastern Europe, and especially into Finland and the other Scandinavian countries. A significant amount of pirated material from Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania reaches Estonia. Placement on the watchlist means that a country either provides no effective intellectual property protection or denies fair and equitable market access to U.S. artists and industries that rely upon intellectual property protection. (International Intellectual Property Alliance 2001 Special Report 301 Report)

International Intellectual Property Alliance 2001 Special Report 301 Report singles out the problem poor enforcement of the intellectual property laws as the most important problem that Estonia is facing in this legislative field.

Piracy Rates in Estonia

According to the report, piracy rates in Estonia in 2000 were as follows:

Motion Pictures: piracy rate 60%, industry monetary loss $2 million

Business Software: piracy rate 69%

Entertainment Software:  piracy rate 98%, industry monetary loss $3.7 million

Sound Recording/Musical Compositions: piracy rate 60%, industry monetary loss $9 million