Inga Lukauskienė, Attorney-at-law

On December 27, 2006 new edition of the regulations "On the grant of permission to use the name of Lithuania in the name of the legal entity, in the name of the branch of the legal entity or in its representative's name" adopted by the decision No.587 of the Lithuanian Republic government on May 14, 2004 entered to force.

According to the new edition of the regulations there are two main changes:


it will not be allowed to use the name of Lithuania in the names of legal entities in other languages than in Lithuanian only, and


the permission to use the name of Lithuania in the name of legal entities could only be granted just to the legal entities which have already been operating, except the cases when the branch of well known foreign legal entity or other organization or its representative is established, also if the legal entities are established in which the names this foreign legal entity or other organization name is used.

The conditions where separate permission of the minister of justice is not required have not changed in essence:


where public entities are established or


the name of the entity which already has such permission is transferred to other legal entity established by that subject, to its branch or representative.

According to the new edition of the regulations, besides the documents grounding the necessity to use the name of Lithuania in the name of legal entity, it is also necessary to file the document of establishment of the legal entity, in which the name of Lithuania is applied to be used, or the regulations of the branch of the legal entity or its representative, if the permission is requested to use the name of Lithuania in the name of the branch or its representative, also the corresponding decision regarding the use of the name of Lithuania in the changed name of the legal entity passes by the body of the legal entity, which is competent in making the decision to change the name. The order of the examination of requests to use the name of Lithuania in the name of the legal entity, granting or cancellation of the permission has essentially remained the same.

In October 31, 2006 the Law on amendment and addendum of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Copyright and Neighboring Rights entered into force. Amendment of the law was conditioned by necessity to harmonize the law with Directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work and with Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Article 17 of the Law was one of the articles, which were changed fundamentally. The article regulates re-sail of rights to fine art original manuscript. Former edition of the law set off fixed 5 percent portion, which was paid for the re-sail of work or original manuscript, if they cost not less than 500 Litas. The new edition of the law not only specifies, who has an obligation to pay a royalty to the author (showrooms, art galleries, museums, antiquarians, etc.), but also differentiates payment of the royalty from 5 to 0,25 percent, depending on price of the re-sailed work or manuscript original. According to the new edition of the article, the royalty is paid, if the price after tax is not less than 300 Euro. However the royalty for one work or manuscript original can not exceed 12500 Euro.

In accordance with Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, the law was added with a list of persons, which besides authors, subjects of neighboring and sui generis rights, have a right to defend their rights by bring an action before the court. Exclusive license holders and associations of collective rights administration are among persons in the list (Article 77).

According to the directive, such rights as the right to request injunctions to the intermediaries (Article 78), the right to be provided with information (Article 79), the presentation of evidence (Article 80), the interim injunctions and the measures for preserving evidence (Article 81), the corrective measures (Article 82) were defined more widely and more detailed.

The new edition of the law adjusted regulation of remuneration of monetary damages and compensation, i.e, the law doesn't set out the minimal amount of compensation 10 MLL (minimum living level) anymore, but it leaves the margin for the maximum amount which is the same – 1000 MLL. As an alternative to compensation, there is a possibility to request payment, which would have been due, if the infringer had used works or other objects, protected by this law (i.e., had received permission to use) legally. In case, if the infringement was committed intentionally or because of gross negligence, the amount can be expanded up to double of the remuneration. In case if the infringer engages in an activity without knowledge or without reasonable grounds for knowing that he infringes legally protected rights, the unfair profits can be recovered from him. It is a duty of the infringer to prove the net profit.

Also the amendment of the law brought a list of lesser modifications: a term "commercial goal" was introduced, arts and crafts were considered to be copyrightable objects irrespective of registrations as an industrial design, compulsory clauses of copyright agreement and conclusion of publishing agreement were specified, number of members of The Lithuanian Council of Copyright and Neighboring Rights and their election order was detailed.