On 12 December 2024, Law no. 959 entered into force in Uzbekistan bringing about several amendments to local intellectual property legislation.
The most significant novelty is that right holders will be able to demand compensation from infringers violating their IP rights, instead of damages, which are very difficult to prove and obtain via a court ruling. The new law provides that statutory compensation can be sought in the amount of 20 to 1,000 times the Basic Calculation Value (BCV) (USD 590 to USD 29,500).
If there is no agreement between the parties about the compensation amount, it will be decided by the court based on the type of violation and the degree of the infringer’s fault, considering customary business practices. As the criteria for defining the amount (‘type of violation’, ‘degree of fault’ and ‘customary business practices’) are quite vague and will require extra effort from the right holder to prove higher compensation amounts, it is expected that the courts will be inclined to grant lower compensation amounts (i.e. closer to 20 BCV than to 1,000 BCV) in most cases. Right holders can therefore evaluate if seeking compensation instead of damages is efficient in every case, while it can be assumed that it will likely be efficient against small scale infringements.
Another important novelty is that the new law enhances the protection of IP rights on the internet by adding IP rights violations to the list of offences that could lead to the blocking of access to a website, web page or other information resource.
