OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2011. Azerbaijan is strengthening the legislative framework for combating piracy.

Khudayat Hasanli, head of the Legal Department of the State Copyright Agency of Azerbaijan, says that the Agency has drafted the Law on Intellectual Property Rights Protection & Piracy Fight.

"The Bill has been already submitted to the government. Currently, the draft law is under consideration of the Presidential Administration and its adoption in late 2011 is not ruled out," Hasanli said.

He added that the new law basically requires specific measures to combat piracy, in particular, provides full protection of intellectual property rights, of both electronic and conventional publishing.

Hasanli says that currently fight against piracy is conducted in accordance with the applicable law and the amendments passed on 19 November 2010. In particular, intellectual property rights offenders downloading from the Internet are fined AZN 500 in the first case. In case the violation is done for the second and other times the offender is drawn to 165 days of community service in compliance with the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan (article on violation of intellectual property and allied rights).