RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/98
22 April 1998
(98-1636)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
REVIEW OF LEGISLATION
Replies from Bulgaria to Questions Posed by Japan1
The following communication, dated 15 April 1998, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Bulgaria.
_______________
REPLIES TO QUESTIONS POSED BY JAPAN
1. Please explain whether and how the Copyright Law of Bulgaria provides protection for
works, phonograms and performances of other WTO Members, and please describe the provision in
the Copyright Law of Bulgaria  which provides for the national treatment (NT) and
most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN) as required  by TRIPS Article 3, Article 4 and Article 9.1
incorporating Berne Article 5.1.
Articles from 99 to 102 of the Bulgarian La w on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (in force
since 1 August 1993)  provide for protection of works, phonograms and performances of citizens of
other WTO Member States and comply with the re quirements of Articles 3, 4 and 9.1 of the TRIPS
Agreement.
(1) With respect to copyright (Article 99)
National treatment with respect to c opyright is applied to the following:
- works whose authors are permanent residents of the Republic of Bulgaria regardless
of where the works concerned have been published for the first time;
- works published for the first time in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria or in a
state,  with which the Republic of Bulgaria has concluded an international copyright
treaty, regardless of the nationality of the authors;
- works published for the first time in the territory of a state with which the Republic of
Bulgaria has not signed an international copyright treaty, in case such works have
been published simultaneously or within 30 days in the territory of the Republic of
Bulgaria, or in the territory of a state, with which the Republic of Bulgaria has signed
a treaty.
                                                     
1IP/C/W/92.IP/C/W/98
Page 2
The Republic of Bulgaria is a party to the Berne Convention as well as to the Universal
Copyright Convention and accords national treatment to the countries that are parties to those
conventions based on reciprocity.
When the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights is applied to works created by foreign
citizens or published for the first time abroad, the copyright holder, according to Article 99.2, isdefined under the relevant foreign law.
(2) With respect to neighbouring rights
(performing artists (Article 100)):
A national treatment regime is applied to the rights of performing artists over performances
when they are:
- permanent residents of the Republic of Bulgaria regardless of the place of their
performance;
- foreign artists, whose performances are made in the territory of the Republic of
Bulgaria;
- foreign artists, whose performances are made in the territory of a state, which is a
party to the Rome Convention;
- foreign artists, whose performances are defined as a constituent part of a phonogram
which, according to the Rome Convention, is under protection in the territory of
Bulgaria;
- foreign artists, whose performances are not recorded, but are included in a
programme under protection in Bulgaria, according to the Rome Convention.
(producers of phonograms (Article 101)):
A national treatment regime is applied to the following phonograms:
- made by natural persons or legal persons with a seat in the territory of Bulgaria,
regardless of the place where such phonograms have been made;
- made or simultaneously published by foreign persons in the territory of Bulgaria;
- made by persons, citizens of or with a seat in a state with which the Republic of
Bulgaria is a party to the Rome or Geneva Conventions, regardless of the place where
the phonograms were made;
- published for the first time in a state, with which the Republic of Bulgaria has not
signed an international treaty concerning producers’ rights, but have simultaneously
or within 30 days been published in the territory of a state party to the
Rome Convention.
The International Convention for the Protection of the Performers, Producers of Phonograms
and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome, 1961) was ratified by the Republic of Bulgaria with the
following reservation with regard to the applicati on of Article 12:  the producers of phonograms are
entitled to compensation, in case of wireless broadcasting and public performance, only if they areIP/C/W/98
Page 3
citizens of a state, party to the Convention.  The amount and the term of the compensation are the
same as provided for in their native state for the protection of phonograms made for the first time in
Bulgaria.
(radio and TV organizations (Article 101)):
A national treatment regime is applied to the following programmes:
- broadcasted by legal persons with a seat in the territory of Bulgaria;
- broadcasted by legal persons with a seat in a state party to the Rome Convention,
regardless of the place where the broadcasting was accomplished;
- broadcasted by a transmitter, located in the territory of a state party to the
Rome Convention, regardless of the seat of the broadcasting organizations.
Article 102 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbour ing Rights stipulates that the rights of
foreign performing artists, producers of phonograms and radio and television organizations, other thanthose referred to in Article 100.2 and Article 101, shall be protected under the international treaties
covering rights neighbouring to copyright to which the Republic of Bulgaria is a party.
2. Please explain exceptions or exemptions for NT and MFN, if any, in the Copyright Law of
Bulgaria as permitted by Articles 3 and 4 of the TRIPS Agreement.
As described in the reply to the previous question, the Republic of Bulgaria ratified the
International Convention on Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting
Organizations with reservations with regard to the application of its Article 12. The legal basis for this
reservation is in Article 16.1 (a), items 3 and 4.  The producers of phonograms are entitled to
compensation for wireless broadcasting or public performance, only if they are citizens of a state
party to the Convention.  The amount and the term of  the compensation are the same as provided for
in their native state for the protection of phonograms made for the first time in Bulgaria.
3. Please explain whether and how the Copyright Law of Bulgaria provides protection for
"computer programs", and whether such protection covers computer programs in both source and
object code, as required by Article 10.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights treats computer programs as copyright
objects and provides for their protection (Article 3.1.1).
The copyright belongs to the person, whose creative work has resulted in the creation of the
computer program.  In case the computer progra m was created under an employment contract and
unless otherwise agreed, the copyright over it shall belong to the employer - Article 14 of the Law on
Copyright and Neighbouring Rights.
Unless otherwise agreed with respect to the use of a computer program, the person who has
lawfully acquired the right to use a computer program may use it, display it on screen, execute it,transmit it, store it in the memory of his computer, translate it, revise it and effect other changes in it
as long as such actions are necessary for attaining the objective for which the right to use that program
was acquired, as well as for elimination of errors.  Copying of computer programs for personal use is
not permitted by the Law.IP/C/W/98
Page 4
Article 71 of the Law explicitly defines the actions that a person, who has lawfully acquired
the right to use a computer program, may conduct without the consent of the author and not paying
additional compensation to him:
- to prepare a back-up copy of the program whenever it is necessary for the respective
use for which the program had been acquired;
- to observe, study and test the action of the program in order to determine the ideas
and principles which may be embodied in any of its elements as long as this is done
in the process of loading the software, its display on a screen, its execution,
transmission or storage in the computer memory and only if that person is entitled to
carry out such actions pursuant to Article 70;
- to translate the programming code from one into another, only if that is absolutely
necessary for achieving compatibility of an existing program with other programs andon the condition that the necessary information on how to do that is not provided and
that such actions are undertaken only in respect to such parts of the program as are
necessary for achieving compatibility.  The information thus obtained shall not be
used either for the creation and distribution of programs with a translated
programming code, or for any other actions that may infringe copyright over thecomputer program.
4. Please explain whether and how the Copyright Law of Bulgaria provides protection for
"compilations of data", as required by Article 10.2 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, in accordance with Article 10.2 of the
TRIPS Agreement, provides protection for "compilation of data" (Article 3.2.3).
Copyright over databases belongs to the person who has created the database concerned.
However, unless otherwise agreed, copyright over databases developed under an employment contract
shall belong to the employer - Article 14 of the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights.
A law amending the Law on Copyright and Neighbou ring Rights is being drafted with a view
to achieve conformity with EU Directives 93/98/EEC; 93/83/EEC; 92/100/EEC and 96/9/EEC (ondatabases).
5. As Article 9a (1) 5 of the Copyright Law of Bulgaria concerning rental rights of published
literary, artistic and scientific works does not explicitly refer to "originals and copies of computer
programs" and "unpublished computer programs", plea se explain whether rental rights of such works
are provided for in the Copyright Law of Bulgaria and please explain whether the Copyright Law
conforms to Article 11 of the TRIPS Agreement in this respect.
The reference made to Article 9a (1) 5 concerns the Copyright Law of the Republic of
Bulgaria that was in force up to August 1993.  The present Law on Copyright and Neighbouring
Rights has been in force since 1 August 1993.  Under the provisions of the Law on Copyright and
Neighbouring Rights computer programs are treated as enjoying full rights of copyright -
 Article 3.1.1.
According to the provisions of the present Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
(Article 18.1) the author is entitled to the exclusive right to use the work created by him and to permit
its use by other persons.  In accordance with paragraph 2.4 of the Additional Provisions of the Law
renting, including computer programs and cinematographic works, is a form of distribution of the
work, that is qualified as a form of use of the work under Article 18.2 .IP/C/W/98
Page 5
Under the provisions of Article 18.4 of the Law, the first sale or other transaction performed
by the right holder or with his consent, through whic h the ownership of the original of the work or a
copy thereof is transferred, shall terminate the right to distribute that work or copy, with the exception
of the right to permit their further renting.  The author shall reserve for himself the right to permit
renting the originals or copies of the work (including computer programs and cinematographicworks), notwithstanding to the transfer of the ownership.
The Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, in accordance with the provision of
Article 11 of the TRIPS Agreement, guarantees th e authors of cinematographic works the rights to
permit or not to permit renting their works.
6. As Article 9a (1) 1 of the Copyright Law of Bulgaria provides for rental rights only in respect
of videocassettes or other video carriers, please explain whether and how the Copyright Law of
Bulgaria provides for rental rights of originals of cinematographic works which are not made intovideocassettes or other video carriers.  Please explain also whether the Copyright Law conforms to
Article 11 of the TRIPS Agreement in this respect.
Please see the reply to question 5 above.
7. Since Article 14.4 of the TRIPS Agreement provides for rental rights for "any other right
holders in phonograms as determined in a Member’s  law" in addition to "producers of phonograms",
please specify such "any other right holders", if any, in the Copyright Law of Bulgaria.
Article 72 of the Law on Copyright and Neig hbouring Rights stipulates that holders of
neighbouring rights are the producers of phonograms over their recordings, the performing artists over
their performances and radio and television organizations over their programmes.
The economic rights of the above mentioned holders of neighbouring rights may be exercised
by duly empowered organizations conducting the collective management of rights (Article 73 of the
Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights).
8. Please explain by referring to specific provisions in the legislation of your country how textile
designs are protected in conformity with Article 25 (2) of the TRIPS Agreement.  Moreover, please
explain your system or practice with regard to cost, examination or publication ensuring that theopportunity to seek and obtain protection for textile designs is not unreasonably impaired.
The Law on Trademarks and Industrial Designs stipulates that the protection of textile designs
is provided through their registration in the Pate nt Office.  The procedure for their registration is
identical to the procedure for the registration of ot her types of industrial designs. It includes the
examination of their novelty and industrial application.  The cost, examination and publication are in
the amount that do not unreasonably impair the opportunity to seek and obtain protection.
According to Article 3 of the Tariff of Fees Collected by the Patent Office of the Republic of
Bulgaria (State Gazette No. 53 of 4 July 1997) the applicants, who may be the authors, small and
medium-sized enterprises, state education institutions and academic scientific research organizations
shall pay fees in the amount of 50 per cent.
__________