Unique access to global intellectual property precedents has been opened
The National Courts Administration (NCA) and the International Bureau of the World Intelectual Property Organisation (WIPO) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement on the WIPO Lex-Judgments project: by this memorandum, Lithuania joins the states that provide the most important judgements of national courts.
WIPO Lex-Judgments database provides Lithuanian courts with the opportunity to exchange information stored in it, to read judgements related to the protection of intellectual property rights, translated into one of the languages used on the WIPO Lex platform (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish). The purpose of the WIPO Lex-Judgments database is to contribute to the free access to information and data relating to judicial systems and judgements in the field of intellectual property. This database will be available on WIPO Lex platform and will allow to search for relevant court judgements based on various search criteria.
After consulting with the Ministries of Finance, Culture, Justice and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, the Supreme Court of Lithuania (SCL) and the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania, it was decided that the NCA, which took the initiative in concluding this agreement as early as December 2020, must be a party to the Memorandum of Agreement in Lithuania.
"We are very grateful to Rasa Svetikaitė, the Attaché of the Ministry of Justice, the International Law Group of this Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Patent Bureau for useful consultations and valuable insights in taking this important step of legal cooperation," Natalija Kaminskienė, Director of NCA, expressed her gratitude. "Such steps are breaking down borders, growing opportunities for mutual assistance, clarifying judicial processes, and are simply necessary in today’s world of fast information exchange."
“We can rejoice in Lithuania’s growing cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization and the progress in joining new initiatives and projects. As a result of this project, not only does our legal community gain access to the most significant world court precedents in the field of intellectual property - the project opens opportunities to share good Lithuanian court practice with other countries,” Rasa Svetikaitė assessed the benefits of the memorandum, she is acting as Justice and Intellectual Property Attaché at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
According to this memorandum, the NCA, in cooperation with the SCL, will annually select the most significant judgements of national courts related to the protection of intellectual property rights, ensure their official translation and publication in the WIPO Lex-Judgments database. This agreement is included in the database of international interdepartmental agreements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.