RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/285
1 August 2001
(01-3814)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  Spanish
REVIEW OF LEGISLATION
Responses from the Dominican Republic to the Questions Posed
by Canada, United States, Japan and Switzerland
By means of a communication from the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic dated
14 June 2001, the Secretariat has received the following responses to the questions posed by Canada,
United States, Japan and Switzerland, as circul ated in documents IP/C/W/261, 268/Add.1, 258 and
263, respectively.
_______________
CANADA
1. Please describe how the enforcement obligations (Articles 41-61 of the TRIPS
Agreement and throughout) have been implemented.
In relation to violations of copyright and related rights, Article 168 of the Dominican
Republic’s Copyright Law 65-00 establishes effective, fair and equitable procedures for proceeding
against any infringement of copyright, stipulating th at the right holder, his successors in title or their
contractual representative has the choice of three ways of initiating proceedings: civil, criminal andadministrative.
Civil proceedings
Civil actions may be brought before the civil and commercial division of the court of first
instance of the place of domicile of the defendant, the ordinary rules of procedure being observed
(Art. 176).
As a result of these proceedings, anyone who has violated moral or economic rights
recognized under the law will be liable to the right holder for injury caused by such violation,
regardless of whether or not he was aware of having committed the infringement (Art. 177).
According to Art. 102 of Regulation No. 362-01 implementing Law 65-00, unless there is evidence to
the contrary, the moral rights of the author will be understood to have been injured by the violation ofsuch rights, as well as by the mere infringement of any right of exploitation in the work, and
compensation for moral injury will be ordered without it being necessary to prove the existence of
economic injury.
If the right holder has good cause to fear the infringement of his right or that the evidence of
infringement may disappear, he may request the court, without prior notification of the other party, toorder the attachment or sequestration of the illegal material, the proceeds of its sale and the equipmentIP/C/W/285
Page 2
used, as well as to request the immediate suspension of the unlawful activity and, in particular, any
unlawful reproduction, distribution, communication to the public or importation (Art.179).
Before the main action is brought, the holder may also request from the court a warrant for
the judicial inspection of the premises on which acts in violation of the law or its regulations are
presumed to be taking place or of goods and eq uipment passing through customs (Art.180).  In the
same warrant the court may order the attachment or sequestration of the unlawful material and the
equipment used to produce it, if there is found to be a serious presumption of infringement.
Inspectors from the National Copyright Office ( ONDA) may be ordered to participate in the
inspection (Art. 181).
The warrant will be executed despite any action for referral or appeal against it, and its
execution may not be opposed by the owner, tenant, occupant or person in charge of the place,
premises or commercial enterprise where the measure is enforced (Art.182).
If a main action for infringement has not been brought within 30 working days of the
enforcement of the measure, the court that ordered the measure may lift it, at the request of the party
against which it was enforced.
In the final judgement establishing the violation, the court may order that the copies
unlawfully reproduced or used and the means of reproducing them be destroyed or handed over to theplaintiff (Art.183).  For the purpose of determining moral damages account will be taken of the
circumstances of the violation, the seriousness of the injury and the extent of unlawful dissemination
of the work, while for the purposes of determining economic damages account shall be taken of the
profits that would presumably have been made by the injured party if there had been no infringement,
the remuneration that he would have received if he had authorized exploitation, and all the profits,direct or indirect, made by the infringer as a consequence of the unlawful activity (Arts. 102 and 103
of Regulation 362-01).
Moreover, Law 65-00 has a chapter on border measures which provides for the suspension of
release if the right holder suspects the imminent importation or exportation of goods that infringe
copyright or related rights.  This measure can be ordered by the General Customs Directorate or thecompetent office of the Fiscal Attorney, at th e request of a party or ex officio (Art.185). 
The requesting party and the importer must be notified of the duration of the measure within
five days so that they may bring an action for infringement or an action against the measure itself, as
the case may be.
Criminal proceedings
Articles 168 ff. of Law 65-00 establish the penalties for violators of the law and for all those
who order an unlawful act or arrange for it to be carried out, including the legal representatives ofcorporate entities, and all those who, knowing the act to be unlawful, take part in, facilitate or conceal
it.
These penalties include three months to three years of ordinary imprisonment and a fine of
from 50 to 1,000 minimum wages for those who in any way use (distribute, modify, reproduce,
communicate, etc.) a literary, artistic or scientific work, a performance, a phonographic production ora broadcast without the permission of the author or his authorized representative.  Article 169 gives a
long list of infringements that carry these penalties.IP/C/W/285
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Moreover, Art. 170 provides for fines of from 10 to 50 minimum wages for those who, being
authorized to publish a work, do so without meeting the requirements of the law or who, in publishing
the work, engage in acts that go beyond those expressly authorized.
In cases of repeat infringements, the maximum prescribed penalties are applied and if the
unlawful act has seriously jeopardized the livelihood of the aggrieved party, the fines may beincreased to up to three times the amount of the mate rial damage caused.  If the infringer is insolvent,
the law provides for the imposition of a penalty of one day’s imprisonment for each peso left unpaid,
with a maximum of two years (Art. 172).
The court may never reduce the penalty below the permissible minimum, not even if there are
mitigating circumstances, and may order the unlawful reproductions and the materials and equipment
used for unlawful purposes to be confiscated and awarded to the right holder in the final judgement,
unless the latter requests their destruction; moreover, they may be provisionally seized without theother party being notified or heard, at any stage of the proceedings (even before a criminal action is
brought), at the request of the aggrieved right holder (Art. 173).
Even before a criminal action is initiated, the Fiscal Attorney may carry out the investigations
or expert examinations necessary to determine the existence of infringing materials, without the other
party being present.
Cases involving infringements of this kind are heard by the ordinary criminal courts and the
proceedings are conducted in accordance with the C ode of Criminal Procedure.  A criminal action
may be brought by anyone, and may be initiated ex officio, even if no information or complaint is
lodged, and a non-resident plaintiff does not have to provide judicatum solvi  security.
Administrative proceedings
Notwithstanding the effectiveness of the above-mentioned proceedings, Law 65-00 and its
implementing Regulation No. 362-01 grant the National Copyright Office (ONDA) extensive powers
to provide administrative protection for copyright and related rights, and to settle any disputes which
might arise.
The powers conferred on ONDA by Arts. 187 and 188 of Law 65-00 and Art. 107 of
Regulation 362-01 include:
- Managing, coordinating and supervising, on an administrative basis, the application
of the international laws, treaties and agreements in the field of copyright and related
rights to which the Dominican Republic is party, and monitoring compliance.
- Organizing and administering the National Copyright Registry and legal deposits.
- Authorizing, inspecting and overseeing the collective management societies and,
where necessary, applying the appropriate sanctions.
- Monitoring and investigating activities that could give rise to the exercise of
copyright or related rights, ex officio or at the request of a party.
- Filing, where appropriate, a criminal complaint, if it has knowledge of a suspected
offence.
- Issuing non-binding technical reports in civil and criminal proceedings, at the request
of a party or ex officio.IP/C/W/285
Page 4
- Developing public awareness, education and training programmes in the field of
copyright and related rights.
- Ordering and carrying out inspections, preventive or precautionary measures,
including for the purpose of collecting evidence, whether at the request of a party or
ex officio.
- Applying, ex officio or at the request of a party, the administrative sanctions within
its competence, including warning, fining, seizing, and ordering the temporary or
permanent closure of any infringing establishment or the destruction of materials
seized, on the basis of a reasoned decision.
- Promoting the enforcement of its decision.- Establishing, by decision, the fees for the forms, certificates, registrations, copies,
abstracts and documents it processes or issues.
- Ordering, in its administrative capacity, ex officio or at the request of an aggrieved
right holder, the immediate cessation of unlawful activities, with powers to order
expeditious and effective provisional measures designed to prevent a violation of the
law and the introduction of infringing goods, including imports, into the channels ofcommerce or to preserve any relevant evidence relating to the infringement.
- Organizing and administering the registration with ONDA of all importers,
distributors and suppliers of goods, services or equipment linked with copyright or
related rights, and its annual renewal.
- In the event of the communication to the public of a protected work, performance,
production or broadcast by an organizer or impresario without proper authorization,
notifying the infringer and prohibiting the use, performance, production or broadcast,
at the request of the right holder or the management society representing him, on pain
of the imposition of a fine or other sanction within its competence.
Moreover, to avoid lengthy proceedings, ONDA is authorized to intervene in disputes over
the enjoyment or exercise of copyright and related rights by providing conciliation and arbitration
services.
Conciliation can be arranged at the request of one or both of the parties to the dispute or ex
officio.  If it is not possible to reach a settlem ent through conciliation, ONDA will draw up a formal
statement recording the fact, leaving the parties free to take whatever legal action they consider
appropriate.
Arbitration can be arranged only at the request of the parties to the dispute.
2. What protection does your copyright legislation afford to “foreign works”?
The provisions on foreign works are contained in Article 8(3) and (4) of Law 65-00, where it
is stipulated that the following will be protected by the law on an equal footing with national works:IP/C/W/285
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- The works of nationals of or persons domiciled in member countries of any of the
international treaties to which the Dominican Republic is party or to which it may
accede in the future.
- Works published for the first time in one of the member countries of such agreements
or treaties, or within 30 days of their first publication.
In the absence of an applicable international agreement, foreign works, performances,
phonographic productions and broadcasts will enjoy the protection of the law, provided that in the
country of origin effective reciprocity is granted to Dominican authors, performers, producers and
broadcasters, as the case may be.
3. How are plant varieties protected in the Dominican Republic and how does this
protection meet the obligations under the TRIPS Agreement?
As regards the protection of plant varieties, the relevant legislation is being reviewed by the
legislative authorities and should be promulgated shortly.  The promulgation of this law is providedfor in Article 2(2)(c) of the Industrial Property Law (20-00).
4. Please describe how the exclusions of subject matter from patentability under the patent
legislation of the Dominican Republic are consistent with the obligations under the TRIPS
Agreement.
Article 2 of the Industrial Property Law provides for the exclusion of certain subject matter
from patentability in the following terms:
"Art. 2.- Subject matter excluded from patent protection.
(1) Subject matter that does not conform with the definition in Article 1 of this Law shall
be deemed not to be an invention and shall therefore be excluded from patent protection.  In
particular, the following are deemed not to be inventions:
(a) discoveries which consist in making known something that already exists in
nature, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) exclusively aesthetic creations;(c) economic or business plans, rules or methods and those relating to purely
intellectual or industrial activities or the playing of games;
(d) methods of presenting information;(e) computer programs;(f) diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or
animals;
(g) any kind of living matter and substances pre-existing in nature;(h) juxtapositions of known inventions and mixtures of known products and
variations of their shape, size or materials, unless they are combined or fusedso that they cannot function separately or their characteristic qualities orIP/C/W/285
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functions are modified to obtain an industrial result not obvious to a person
skilled in the art;
(i) products or processes already patented, put to a use different from that
contemplated in the initial patent.
(2)  The following inventions shall not be patentable or publishable:
(a) Those whose exploitation would be contrary to ordre public  or morality;
(b) those which are clearly contrary to human or animal health or could cause
serious prejudice to the environment;
(c) plants and animals, other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological
processes for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological
and microbiological processes.   New plant varieties shall be protected under
a special law, in accordance with Article  27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement.
The exclusions in subparagraphs a), b), c), d), e), f), g), h) and i) of paragraph 1 are based on
the fact that the subject matter does not constitute an invention and therefore falls outside the scope of
the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement relating to patents.  Article 27.1 of the TRIPS Agreement
requires that patents be granted for inventions  (emphasis added).  Thus, there is no obligation to grant
patents for subject matter that is not an invention.
With respect exclusion f), it is also based on the fact that the subject matter in question does
not satisfy the condition of industrial applicability.  Such an exclusion is consistent with Article 27.1
of the TRIPS Agreement, which requires inventions to  be capable of industrial application for a patent
to be granted, and Article 27.3(a) of the TRIPS Agreement, which expressly permits the exclusion of
this subject matter from patentability.
With respect to exclusion h), it is also based on the fact that the subject matter in question
does not satisfy the condition of inventive level, since it is obvious to a person skilled in the art.
Article 27.1 of the TRIPS Agreement requires inventions to involve an inventive step in order to
qualify for a patent.
With respect to exclusion i), it is also based on the fact that the subject matter in question does
not satisfy the condition of novelty since it consists of already patented products or processes which
could not be re-patented.  Article 27.1 of the TRIPS Agreement requires that inventions be new as a
condition for the granting of a patent.
The exclusions in subparagraphs a) and b) of paragraph 2) relate to subject matter whose
commercial exploitation would be prejudicial to ordre public , morality, the environment or health.
Such exclusions are permitted under Article 27.2 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The subject matter in subparagraph c) of paragraph 2) was excluded for reasons of
agricultural development policy.  Such exclusions are permitted under Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS
Agreement.IP/C/W/285
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UNITED STATES
A. GENERAL
1. Please describe, in relation to each form of intellectual property covered by the TRIPS
Agreement, including plant variety protection, the manner in which national treatment and
most-favoured-nation treatment are provided to nationals of other WTO Members.
The Dominican intellectual property legislation does not contain any provision that
discriminates between nationals and foreigners in connection with the obtaining, enjoyment or
enforcement of intellectual property rights, subject to the exceptions expressly permitted by Articles 3
and 4 of the TRIPS Agreement.  Thus, the Dominican Republic applies the principles of national
treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment as required by the TRIPS Agreement.
Under Industrial Property Law 20-00, any holder of an intellectual property right will receive
the same treatment as Dominican nationals and there will be no preferential treatment of any kind.
According to Art. 67.3 of the Law: "None of the proc edures to which the application of this Law gives
rise shall be subject to the provision of the security specified in Art. 16 of the Civil Code and Art. 167of the Code of Civil Procedure and its amendments".  These articles require the lodging of security by
non-resident foreigners before they can file suit in the courts of the Dominican Republic.
In accordance with the TRIPS Agreement, Art. 8 of Law 65-00 protects all literary and artistic
works, as well as the literary and artistic form of scientific works, of nationals and residents of theDominican Republic, and of nationals and residents of countries members of any of the international
treaties ratified by the Dominican Republic, together with literary works published for the first time in
any country member of agreements adopted by the Dominican Republic.
With regard to related rights, Art. 133.I of Law 65-00 establishes, clearly and precisely, that
performances, phonographic productions and broadcasts are protected by the law:
(1) If the holder of the corresponding right, or any one of the holders, is Dominican or
domiciled in the country;  and
(2) if, irrespective of the nationality or domicile of the holder, the said performances,
productions or broadcasts were given or made in the Dominican Republic orpublished in the Dominican Republic for the first time or within thirty days of first
publication.
Paragraph II establishes the protection of related rights in cases not covered by the preceding
paragraph, in accordance with the internationa l agreements that the Dominican Republic has
concluded or may in the future conclude.  In the absence of an applicable agreement, they will enjoy
protection under the law if the State to which the holder belongs accords equivalent protection to
Dominican right holders.
It should be pointed out that the protection for related rights afforded by the law can in no
way impair the protection provided for copyright in literary, artistic or scientific works, since the
author will receive the benefit of any doubt, and related rights are subject to the same limitations and
exceptions as the law provides for copyright.
As regards the protection of new plant varieties and topographies, the relevant legislation is
now being prepared for promulgation.  This draft legi slation, like that currently in force in respect of
other intellectual property interests, makes no distinction between nationals and foreigners, so that itIP/C/W/285
Page 8
will be consistent with the principles of national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment
established by Arts. 3 and 4 of the TRIPS Agreement.
B. COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS
2. Please explain whether and how the copyright law of the Dominican Republic complies
with Article 9 of the TRIPS Agreement requiring  that Members comply with all Articles 1
through 21 of the Berne Convention (1971), except Article 6bis, since Members do not have
rights or obligations relating to the latter Article under the TRIPs Agreement.
The preamble to Law 65-00 states that by Resolution 2-95 of 20 January 1995, the Dominican
Republic ratified the Marrakesh Agreement, which includes the TRIPS Agreement, and accordingly
our law is based on and consistent with Art. 9 of the TRIPS Agreement, which requires Members to
comply with Articles 1 through 21 of the Berne Convention (1971).  Moreover, the Congress of the
Dominican Republic has independently ratified the Be rne Convention (1971), so that the latter has the
force of law in our country.
Article 2 of the Berne Convention establishes protection for literary and artistic works and
defines and classifies them.  The Dominican legislation has similar provisions in Art. 2 of Law 65-00.
Under Art. 2 bis of the Convention, States may determine the protection accorded to certain
works such as speeches, lectures and addresses.  Our law protects them in Art. 2 as creations of the
mind.
The criteria for the protection of works contempl ated in Art. 3 of the Convention (nationality
of the author, place of publication and author’s residence) are also provided for in Art. 8 of our law.
The protection of works in non-member countries is governed, in the absence of international
agreements between the countries, both by Art. 6 of the Berne Convention and by Art. 8.1 of
Law 65-00, on the principle of reciprocity.
The term of protection established in Art. 7 of the Convention is reflected in Arts. 21 to 29 of
Law 65-00. The Berne Convention grants the author protection for the whole of his life and 50 years
after his death;  the same protection is offered by the Dominican legislation. Law 65-00, like the
Convention, protects literary, artistic and scientific works, the latter in their literary or artistic form, ingeneral terms, as well as audiovisual works, performers, phonogram producers and broadcasting
organizations.
Under the Berne Convention, the authors or owners of literary and artistic works enjoy the
exclusive right to authorize the translation of their works as long as their rights in the work exist.Under Art. 19 of Law 65-00, the authors of scientific, literary or artistic works and their successors in
title have the right to authorize or prohibit the translation of their works into any language or dialect
and these translations, under Art. 6 of the same law, will be protected as independent works, without
prejudice to the copyright in the initial work, insofar as they constitute an original creation.
The exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the reproduction of the work granted to authors by
Art. 9 of the Convention is also accorded by Art. 19 of our law, in any manner or form, just as the
author has the right to authorize or prohibit any other form of use of the work (translation,
modification, inclusion in audiovisual works, phonograms or any kind of material medium,
distribution to the public and communication to the public, this list being non-exhaustive).
The right to use the work in certain cases, for which Art. 10 of the Convention provides, is
established in Arts. 30 to 48 of Law 65-00 as exceptions to and limitations on copyright.  These are toIP/C/W/285
Page 9
be interpreted narrowly and can only be applied in such a way as not to interfere with the normal
exploitation of the work or cause unjustified harm to the interests of the holder of the corresponding
right (right to make quotations, reproduction by reprographic means for teaching purposes, news and
current events reporting, private copies, etc.).
Article 10 bis of the Convention extends the right to use the works to articles and broadcast
works, as well as to works seen or heard in the course of the reporting of current events.  These have
been included as limitations on copyright in Arts. 33 and 34 of our law.
Article 11 of the Convention concerns the rights in dramatic and musical works, that is to say
the right of the authors of works of this kind to authorize their:
- Public performance;
- communication of the performance to the public by any means;- translation.Our law establishes the same rights in Art. 19.As regards Arts. 11 bis, 11 ter and 12 of the Berne Convention which grant authors the
exclusive right to authorize the broadcasting or communication to the public, public recitation andadaptation, arrangement or other alteration of their work, the same right is provided in Art. 19
(subparagraphs 6, 2 and 3) of our law.
The communication of musical works to the public contemplated in Art. 13 of the Berne
Convention is dealt with in Arts. 128 and 129 of our law which, as in the Convention, establish thatthe transmission of the musical work, with or without words, by wire or wireless means, must be
authorized in advance by the right holder.
With respect to Arts. 14 and 14 bis of the Convention, which concern the author’s exclusive
right to authorize the cinematographic adaptation and reproduction of his works and the distribution
and performance of the works thus adapted or reproduced, while protecting the cinematographic work
as an original work and including among the owners all the authors who have brought contributions tothe making of the work, all these provisions can be found in our law, in Arts. 58 to 72 under the
general heading of audiovisual works.
The droit de suite  (Art. 14 ter of the Convention) is incorporated in Arts. 17 and 78,
paragraph, of Law 65-00.
In accordance with Art. 15 of the Convention, the author has the right to enforce the protected
rights and, accordingly, both the Convention and Law 65-00 (Art. 4) establish a presumption to the
effect that the person whose name, pseudonym or in itials, or conventional marks or signs well known
to correspond to his name, appear on the work is the author of the work, in the absence of proof to thecontrary.
Article 16 of the Berne Convention empowers member States to seize infringing copies,
including imports.  Law 65-00 establishes a procedure under which a copyright holder may request a
civil court to issue a writ ordering the inspection of premises on which violations of the law aresuspected of being committed and to authorize the preventive seizure of unlawful copies and the
equipment employed for making or using them.  This procedure, like suspension of the release of
goods, can also be applied to goods and equipment passing through customs for import or export
(border measures).IP/C/W/285
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3. Please explain how the copyright law of the Dominican Republic protects computer
programs as literary works and complications of data as required by Article 10 of the TRIPS
Agreement.
As required by Art. 10 of the TRIPS Agreem ent, Arts. 73, 74 and 75 of Copyright Law 65-00
provide for the protection of computer programs and compilations of data as follows:
Article 73 defines the computer program producer as a person, whether natural or juridical,
who takes the initiative and responsibility in the production of the work. This article establishes a
presumption, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the program producer is the person who
appears indicated as such in the usual way.
In the absence of stipulations to the contrary, it is presumed that the authors of the computer
program have assigned the exclusive economic rights, including the right to make or authorize
adaptations or versions of the work, to the producer, without limitation and for as long as they
continue to exist.
Exceptions to the exclusive right to reproduce computer programs granted to the producer are
provided for in Art. 74.  Article 75 clearly defines the forms of user licences for computer programs
and databases.
Article 2.12 establishes protection for compilations of data that constitute intellectual
creations. This protection does not extend to the data or material itself, without prejudice to any
copyright existing in the works which may form the subject matter of the database or compilation.
Articles 36 to 40 of Regulation No. 362-01 of 14 March 2001 implementing Law 65-00
explain in detail the protection which the law accords to computer programs and databases.
4. Article 11 of the TRIPS Agreement requires that rental rights for computer programs
and cinematographic works be available.  Please  cite to the corresponding provision of the
copyright law of the Dominican Republic.
Computer programs are works protected by c opyright under Art. 2(11) of the Copyright Law.
Accordingly, they are subject to the provisions of Art. 19(5) of the Copyright Law which gives theauthors of works and their successors in title, among other things, the exclusive right to authorize or
prohibit the distribution to the public of the original or copies of the work by sale, rental, usufruct or
any other means.
With respect to cinematographic works, Arts. 66(2) and 71(1) of the Copyright Law stipulate
that the producer of an audiovisual work shall have, among other things, the right to distribute copies
of the audiovisual work by sale, rental or any other means.
5. Please state the length and terms of prot ection the copyright law of the Dominican
Republic provides for a work other than a photographic work or a work of applied art and citeto the relevant provision of law.
The length and terms of protection which Copyright Law 65-00 affords economic rights are
specified in Arts. 21 to 29.
In general, Law 65-00 offers the author of a work copyright protection for the whole of his
life and his successors in title protection for fifty (50) years after the death of the author. As for
foreign authors, not resident in the Dominican Republic, they are afforded protection on the same
terms as laid down in our legislation for nationals and residents of the Dominican Republic.IP/C/W/285
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Anonymous works are protected for fifty (50) years from first publication, and collective
works and computer programs and photographs are accorded protection for fifty (50) years from
publication or making.
Audiovisual works are protected for seventy (70) years from first publication, showing or
making.
6. Please describe the protection the copyright law of the Dominican Republic provides for
performers, and the term of the protection.
Performers have the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit:
(1) the fixation of their unfixed performances;
(2) the reproduction of fixations of their performances, by any means or process;(3) the communication of their performances to the public, except where the performance
in itself constitutes a broadcast performance;
(4) the distribution to the public of the original or copies that contain their performance
fixed in a phonogram, by sale, rental or any other means.
Article 29 grants performers protection for fifty (50) years from the 1st of January of the year
following the death of the right holder.  In the case of orchestras, choirs and other performing groups,
the term of protection is fifty (50) years from the 1st of January of the year following that of the
performance or its fixation, as the case may be.
7. Article 14.2 of the TRIPS Agreement provides that producers of phonograms are to
enjoy the right to authorize or prohibit the direct or indirect reproduction of their phonograms.
Article 14.2 requires that producers of phonograms are to have the right to authorize or
prohibit the commercial rental to the public of originals or copies of their phonograms.  Please
describe how the copyright law of the Dominican Republic implements these obligations and
indicate the term of protection.
Under Art. 141 of the Copyright Law, phonogram producers have the right to authorize or
prohibit:
- the reproduction, direct or indirect, temporary or permanent, of their phonograms, by
any means or process;
- the distribution of the original or copies of their phonograms to the public, by sale,
rental or any other means;
- the making available to the public of their phonograms, by wire or wireless means, in
such a way that members of the public have access thereto in the place and at the time
of their choosing.
Article 142 establishes that where a phonogram published for commercial purposes or a
reproduction of that phonogram is used directly for any manner of communication to the public, theuser must pay fair and one-off remuneration, to be shared between the performers and the phonogram
producer.  This sum is to be paid by the user to the producer.IP/C/W/285
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The phonogram producer will pass on half of the sum he receives to the performers or their
representatives.
Under Art. 29.I, the term of protection for phonogram producers is fifty (50) years from the
1st of January of the year following that in which the fixation was made.
C. TRADEMARKS
8. Please describe the subject matter that can comprise a trademark under the trademark
law of the Dominican Republic.
According to Art. 70 of Title II “Distinctive Signs” of Law 20-00, a mark may consist of any
visible sign for distinguishing the products or services of one undertaking from the products orservices of another undertaking.
For its part, Art. 72(1) and (2) of the Law lists the signs which, for the purposes of the Law,
may be deemed to be marks:
Art. 72.- Signs deemed to be marks.
(1) Marks may consist, among other things, of words, fanciful denominations, names,
pseudonyms, commercial slogans, letters, numerals,  monograms, figures, portraits, labels, badges,
impressions, vignettes, borders, lines and stripes, combinations and arrangements of colours or three-dimensional shapes.  They may also consist in the shape or presentation of the products or their
packaging or wrappings or the means or place of retail sale of the corresponding products or services.
(2) Without prejudice to the other provisions of the law and other applicable legislation,
marks may also consist of national or foreign geographical indications, provided that they aresufficiently arbitrary and distinctive with respect to the products or services to which they are applied,
and their use is not liable to create confusion with regard to the origin, source, qualities or
characteristics of the products or services for which the marks are used.
9. Please describe the procedure that must be followed to register a trademark in the
Dominican Republic, citing the relevant provisions of the law, and describe the rights that the
owner of a registered mark can exercise.
(a) Procedure
Article 75 ff. of Industrial Property Law 20-00 establishes the procedure to be followed for
registering a trademark in the Dominican Republi c, which may be summarized as follows:  the
registration application is submitted to the National Industrial Property Office  (Oficina Nacional de
Propiedad Industrial or ONAPI), and must comply with all the requirements of the Law; once
ONAPI has finished examining the form and substance of the application, within the time-limits laid
down by the Law, it will proceed to authorize the applicant to publish the trademark authorized for
registration.  Once the period allowed for third parties to file objections has expired and if no
objections have been raised, a registration certificate will be issued.
Art. 75.-  The registration application.(2) The application shall be submitted to the National Industrial Property Office and shall
include the following:IP/C/W/285
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(a) Name and address of the applicant;
(b) name and address of the representative in the Dominican Republic if the applicant is
not resident in the country;
(c) the denomination of the trademark whose registration is being applied for, if it
consists of a name;
(d) a reproduction of the trademark if it consists of a stylized denomination of a
particular shape, type or colour or is a figurative, mixed or three-dimensional mark,
with or without the use of colour;
(e) a list of the products or services for which it is wished to protect the mark, classified
according to the international classification of goods and services in force and
indicating the number of each class;
(f) the documents and authorizations required in the cases mentioned in Arts. 73 and 74,
where appropriate;
(g) the signature of the applicant or his duly authorized representative, if any;(h) evidence of payment of the corresponding fee.Art. 76.- Filing date.(1) The date of filing of the application shall be deemed to be that on which it is received
by the National Industrial Property Office, provided that it contains at least the following elements:
(a) a statement that the applicant is filing for the registration of a trademark;(b) particulars identifying the applicant;
(c) the denomination of the trademark whose registration is being applied for, or
a reproduction thereof in the case of a figurative, mixed or three-dimensionalmark, with or without the use of colour; and
(d) a list of the products or services for which it is desired to protect the mark,
with an indication of their classification.
(2) If any of the elements indicated in the preceding paragraph are missing, the National
Industrial Property Office shall notify the applicant in order that he may make good the omission.  If
he fails to make good the omission, the application shall be considered null and void.
Art. 78.- Formal examination.(1) The National Industrial Property Office shall determine whether the application meets
the requirements of Art. 75 and the corresponding regulations.
(2) If any of the requirements of Art. 75 or the corresponding regulations is not satisfied,
the Office shall notify the applicant in order that he may make good the error or omission within a
period of thirty days, on pain of having the application treated as abandoned and shelved ex officio.IP/C/W/285
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If the error or omission is not made good within the period specified, the Office shall consider
the application to have been effectively abandoned.
Art. 79.- Examination of the substance.
(1) The National Industrial Property Office shall determine whether the trademark is
subject to any of the prohibitions laid down in Arts. 73 and 74(a).  The Office may seek to determine,
on the basis of the information available to it, whet her the trademark is subject to the prohibition in
Art. 74(d).
(2) If the trademark is affected by any of the prohibitions in question, the Office shall
notify the applicant, indicating the objections preventing registration and giving him a period of sixtydays to withdraw, modify or limit his application or contest the objections raised, as appropriate.  If
this period expires without the applicant having responded or if, the applicant having responded, the
Office considers that the objections still apply, registration shall be denied in a reasoned decision.
Art. 80.- Publication, opposition and issue of certificate.(1) Once the application has been examined, the National Industrial Property Office shall
order the publication of a registration application notice, at the applicant’s expense, in the official
organ of the National Industrial Property Office.
(2) Any third party may object to the registration application within forty-five (45) days
of publication of the notice referred to in paragraph 1).
(3) Once the period for raising objections has passed, the National Industrial Property
Office shall rule, in a single decision, on the applications and any objections which may have beenmade, in accordance with the procedure of Art. 154. If it is decided to grant registration, the owner
shall be issued with a trademark registration certificate containing the data specified in the
regulations.
(b) Rights of the owner
Article 86(1) of Law 20-00 establishes the rights of the owner of a trademark.
Art. 86.- Rights conferred by registration.
(1) Registration of a trademark confers on its owner the right to proceed against third
parties who, without his consent, perform any of the following acts:
(a) Apply, attach or affix in any way a distinguishing sign identical or similar to the
registered mark to products for which the mark has been registered, or to the
containers, wrappings, packaging or packing of such products, or to products which
have been produced, modified or treated by means of services for which the mark has
been registered, or which can be linked to those services in any other way;
(b) remove or alter a mark which its owner or a person authorized by the owner has
applied, attached or affixed to the products mentioned in the preceding subparagraph;
(c) manufacture labels, containers, wrappings, packaging or other such materials as may
reproduce or contain a reproduction of the registered mark, and sell or stock such
materials;IP/C/W/285
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(d) refill or re-use for commercial purposes containers, wrappings or packaging bearing
the mark;
(e) make commercial use of a sign identical or similar to the mark on the same products
or services as those for which the mark has been registered, or for different productsor services where the use of the sign in connection with those products or services
might create confusion or a risk of association with the holder of the registration;
(f) make commercial use of a sign identical or similar to the registered mark where such
use might mislead or confuse the public or, by diluting the distinctiveness of
commercial value of the mark or by taking unfair advantage of its prestige, unjustly
damage the owner’s economic or commercial interests;
(g) make public use of a sign identical or similar to the mark, even for non-commercial
purposes, where such use might dilute the distinctiveness or commercial or
advertising value of the mark or take unfair advantage of its prestige.
10. Please provide the length and terms of protection that the trademark law of the
Dominican Republic provides for a trademark.
Under Art. 81 of Law 20-00, the term of protection for a registered trademark is ten years
from the date of granting of the registration, and registration may be renewed indefinitely forsuccessive periods of ten years each, which is consistent with Art. 18 of the TRIPS Agreement.
11. Please describe the criteria that are used to determine whether a trademark or service
mark is well-known, citing to the relevant provisions of law and regulations.
The criteria used to determine whether a mark is well-known are laid down in Art. 70(j) of the
Law, where the characteristics for considering a distinctive sign to be well-known are established.
Likewise, the implementing regulations empower th e National Industrial Property Office to determine
the documentation necessary to register a well-known mark.
Art. 70.- Concepts used.
For the purposes of this Law:
(j) “well-known sign” means a distinctive sign known to the relevant sector of the public
or to business circles in the country or in international trade, irrespective of the manner or
means by which it has come to be known.
12. Please explain how the Dominican Republic law provides for the protection of well-
known marks for dissimilar products, as required by Article 16.3 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Please cite to the relevant provisions of the laws and regulations.
The provisions of Art. 16.3 of the TRIPS Agreement are incorporated in the legislation of the
Dominican Republic by Art. 74(b) and (d), according to which marks are not registrable if their use
impairs third-party rights by leading to confusion, a risk of association with a third party, exploitation
of the well-known nature of the sign or the weakening of its distinctiveness, expressed in terms of
commercial value.  The article reads as follows:
Art. 74.- Marks not  registrable by reason of third-party rights.IP/C/W/285
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A sign may not be registered as a trademark if it would impair any third-party right.  For these
purposes, consideration shall be given, in particular, to those cases in which the sign it is desired to
register:
(b) is identical or similar, in a way which might lead to confusion, to a mark that has not
been registered but is being used by a third party and would have a better right to
registration, provided that the mark is for the same products or services, or for
products or services that are different but liable to be associated or linked with those
distinguished by the mark used;
(d) consists of a total or partial reproduction, imitation, translation or transcription of a
distinctive sign well known in the country to the relevant sector of the public,whatever the products or services to which the sign is applied, if its use is liable to
lead to confusion, a risk of association with the third party, the unfair exploitation of
the well-known nature of the sign, or the dilution of its distinctiveness or commercial
or advertising value.
In addition to the above, the provisions on unfair competition prevent the unauthorized use of
a well-known foreign mark.  In this connection, Art. 177(g) of the Industrial Property Law stipulates
that using, in the course of trade, a sign whose registration is prohibited under Art. 74 of the Law,
which, among other things, prohibits the registration of well-known marks belonging to third parties,
shall be considered an act of unfair competition.
13. Please explain whether the Dominican Republic law permits the registration of generic
terms, which are in the English or Spanish language, citing any relevant laws or regulations.
Law 20-00 prohibits the registration of a mark consisting of generic terms, in English or in
Spanish, for reasons intrinsic to the sign, whether it takes the form of a scientific or technical name or
a word commonly used in trade.  This is laid down in Art. 73.1(d) and (f).
Art. 73.- Marks not registrable for reasons intrinsic to the sign.
(1) No sign may be registered as a trademark if:(d) it consists exclusively of a sign or indication which, in the everyday language of the
country or commercial usage, is the common or usual generic designation of the
products or services concerned, or is the scientific or technical name of a product or
service;  or
(f) is not sufficiently distinctive with respect to the products or services to which it is
applied as to differentiate them from like or similar products or services.
D. 
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
14. Please describe in detail how the laws of the Dominican Republic provide for the
recognition and protection of geographical indications required by Article 22.2 of the TRIPSAgreement, citing to the relevant provisions of law or regulation, and provide examples of
geographical indications so protected.
(a) Protection of geographical indications:
The protection of geographical indications required by Art. 22.2 of the TRIPS Agreement is
provided for in the ten (10) articles (Arts. 124 to 134) of Title II, Chapter VI of the Dominican
legislation.  Geographical indications cannot be regi stered under the Law if they would be misleadingIP/C/W/285
Page 17
or if their use might induce error or confusion in the mind of the public.  Accordingly, Art. 126
provides for proceedings against the improper use of such indications.
Art. 124.- Use of geographical indications.
A geographical indication may not be used in the course of trade in relation to a product or
service if that indication is false or misleading with respect to the origin of the product or service or if
it might create confusion in the mind of the public with respect to the origin, quality, source,
characteristics or properties of the product or service.
Art. 126.- Proceedings against the improper use of geographical indications.
Any interested party, and in particular producers, manufacturers and craftsmen, consumers
and the Office of the Attorney General, may initiate proceedings, individually or jointly, before the
competent authorities for any purpose relating to the enforcement of the provisions of Art. 124.
(b) Examples of protected geographical indications
So far, no geographical indications have been registered under Law 20-00.  However, this
Law grants protection to geographical indications even if they have not been registered, in accordance
with Arts. 72 and 73, which read as follows:
Art.72.- Signs deemed to be trademarks.(2) Without prejudice to the other provisions of this Law and other applicable legislation,
trademarks may also consist of national or foreign geographical indications, provided that they are
sufficiently arbitrary and distinctive with respect to the products or services to which they are applied,
and their use is not liable to create confusion with regard to the origin, source, qualities orcharacteristics of the products or services for which the marks are used.
Art. 73.- Trademarks not registrable for reasons intrinsic to the sign.(1) No sign may be registered as a trademark if:
it may mislead trade circles or the public as to the source, nature, method of
manufacture, qualities, suitability for use or consumption, quantity or any other
characteristic of the products or services concerned;
Example:  Scotch whisky, champagne, port.
15. Please describe in detail the manner in which the higher level of protection required for
wines and spirits under Article 23.2 of the TRIPS Agreement is implemented, citing to the
relevant provisions of law or regulation, and provide examples of geographical indications for
such products.
The legislation of the Dominican Republic affords the same high level of protection to all
geographical indications and appellations of origin, without distinction as to the type of product to
which the indication or appellation is applied.  Thus, all geographical indications enjoy protection at
the highest level mentioned in Art. 23 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The directly relevant provision is Art. 124 of the Industrial Property Law which stipulates that
a geographical indication may not be used in the course of trade in relation to a product or service if
that indication is false or misleading with respect to the origin of the product or service, or if its useIP/C/W/285
Page 18
might create confusion in the mind of the public with respect to the origin, quality, source,
characteristics or properties of the product or service.  The use of a geographical indication
identifying wines or spirits for products of this kind not originating in the place indicated by the
geographical indication in question will constitute a false geographical indication prohibited by
Art. 124.
The following provisions of the Industrial Property Law are also relevant:Art. 73.- Marks not registrable for reasons intrinsic to the sign.(1) No sign may be registered as a trademark if::
(i) it may mislead trade circles or the public as to the source, nature, method of
manufacture, qualities, suitability for use or consumption, quantity or any other
characteristic of the products or services concerned;
(j) it reproduces or imitates an appellation of origin registered in accordance with this
Law for the same products, or for different products if there is a risk of confusion as
to the origin or other characteristics of the products, or a risk of unfair advantage
being taken of the prestige of the appellation of origin, or if it consists of a
geographical indication that does not comply with the requirements of Art. 72(2);
Art. 126.- Proceedings against the improper use of geographical indications.
Any interested party, and in particular producers, manufacturers and craftsmen, consumers
and the Office of the Attorney General may initiate proceedings, individually or jointly, before the
competent authorities for any purpose relating to the enforcement of the provisions of Art. 124.
Moreover, Art. 134 concerning the cancellation of the registration of an appellation or origin
allows any third party to request the cancellation of such registrations if they violate Art. 128.
Art. 134.- Cancellation of the registration of an appellation of origin.(1) At the request of any of the parties mentioned in Art. 126, the Industrial Property
Registry shall declare the registration of an appellation of origin null and void if it is shown to be
covered by any of the exclusions for which Art. 128 provides.
(2) At the request of any of the parties mentioned in Art. 126, the Industrial Property
Registry shall cancel the registration of an appellation of origin if it is shown that the qualities orcharacteristics indicated in the registration with respect to the products designated by the appellation
of origin do not correspond to those of the products placed in circulation under that appellation.
Nevertheless, interested parties may request re-registration if they consider that the conditions
for protection have been restored.
Article 166(b), (c) and (d) establishes the penalties for breaches of the law:Art. 166.-  Penalties.
A penalty of three months’ to two years’ ordinary imprisonment or a fine of ten to fifty
minimum wages, or both, shall be incurred by whoever intentionally:IP/C/W/285
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(b) without the consent of the owner of a dis tinctive sign performs any of the following
acts in relation to a trade name, label or emblem:
(i) makes commercial use of an identical distinctive sign for an identical or
related business;
(ii) makes commercial use of a similar distinctive sign when it is likely to create
confusion;
(c) makes commercial use in relation to a product or service of a geographical indication
that is false or likely to mislead the public as to the origin of that product or service or
as to the identity of the producer, manufacturer or supplier of the product or service;
(d) makes commercial use in relation to a product of a false or misleading appellation of
origin, or an imitation of an appellation of origin, even where the true origin of the
product is indicated, or the appellation is used in translation or accompanied by
expressions such as "type", "kind", "style", "imitation" or the like;
PARAGRAPH.- Liability for the acts described above extends to persons who order them or
arrange for them to be carried out, the legal representatives of corporate entities and all those
who, knowing the act to be unlawful, take part in, facilitate or conceal it.
Under Art. 177(c) the infringement of geographical indications constitutes an act of unfair
competition and therefore any third party may institute the proceedings for which the law provides.
This provision is supplemented by Art. 183 of the same law.
Art. 177.- Unfair competition relating to distinctive elements of an undertaking.The following, in particular, constitute acts of unfair competition:(c) using or propagating indications or claims liable to mislead or induce error with
respect to the commercial source, geographical origin, nature, method of
manufacture, suitability for use or consumption, quantity or other characteristics of
one’s own products or services or those of another;
Art. 183.- Proceedings against an act of unfair competition.(1) Anyone who considers himself to have been injured by an act of unfair competition
may initiate proceedings before the competent judicial authority.
(2) In addition to the person directly injured by the act, any association, federation, union
or other entity representing a professional or business group or consumers shall be entitled to bring
proceedings if its members’ interests are adversely affected.
E. 
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
16. Please describe the procedure that must be followed to obtain protection for industrial
designs, citing to the provisions of the law of the Dominican Republic, and describe the nature
of the protection provided.
The protection available for industrial designs is described in the sixteen (16) articles
(Arts. 54 to 69) of Title I, Chapter III of Law 20-00.IP/C/W/285
Page 20
(a) Procedure:
The procedure to be followed in registering an industrial design is laid down in Arts. 61 to 66
of Law 20-00.  To obtain registration it is necessary to file an application with ONAPI, which, after
determining that all the formal and substantial requi rements of the law have been met, will issue a
certificate.  In this connection, Art. 58 of Law 20-00 specifies the conditions or requirements forprotection.
Art. 58.- Requirements for protection.(1) An industrial design shall be protected if it is new.(2) An industrial design shall be considered new if it has not been disclosed or made
available to the public, anywhere in the world, by publication, marketing, use or any other means,
before the date on which the person holding the right to obtain protection files an industrial design
registration application in the Dominican Republic, or the recognized priority date, as the case may
be.
(3) For the purposes of determining novelty no account shall be taken of any disclosure
made within the twelve months preceding the registration application date, provided that such
disclosure was the direct or indirect result of acts performed by the designer or his assignee, or of a
betrayal of trust or breach of contract, or of an unlawful act directed against either of them.
(4) An industrial design shall not be considered new merely because it incorporates
minor differences with respect to earlier designs.
Art. 61.- Standing of applicant.
(1) An applicant for the registration of an industrial design may be a natural or juridical
person.
(2) If the applicant is not the designer, the application must indicate how he acquired the
right to obtain registration.
Art. 62.- Application for multiple designs.The registration of two or more industrial designs may be requested in a single application,
provided that they all apply to products in the same classification group.
Art. 63.- Registration application.(1) Applications for the registration of an industrial design shall be filed with the
National Industrial Property Office and shall include the following:
(a) A request for the granting of registration, together with particulars of the applicant
and the designer and the data specified in the regulations;
(b) a graphic or photographic reproduction of the industrial design, it being permissible
to submit more than one view of the design if the latter is three-dimensional; in the
case of two-dimensional designs on a textile fabric, paper or other flat material, the
reproduction may be replaced by a sample of the product that incorporates the design;
(c) a description of the products to which the design will be applied and the classification
heading and subheadings of the products;IP/C/W/285
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(d) evidence of payment of the prescribed fee in accordance with the number of product
subcategories and the number of designs for each product.
(2) The regulations shall specify the number of copies and the size of reproductions of
the industrial design and may deal with other aspects relating thereto.  If the application comprises
two or more industrial designs, the corresponding reproductions shall be unambiguously numbered.
Art. 64.- Acceptance and filing date of the application:(1) The filing date of the application shall be deemed to be the date of its receipt by the
National Industrial Property Office, provided that it contains at least the following elements:
(a) An indication, express or implicit, that  the purpose of the application is the
registration of an industrial design;
(b) sufficient information to identify the applicant;(c) a graphic or photographic reproduction of the industrial design; in the case of two-
dimensional designs on textile fabric, paper or other flat material, a sample of the
product incorporating the design may be provided in place of a reproduction.
(2) If any of the elements mentioned in paragraph 1) are missing from the application, the
National Industrial Property Office shall notify the applicant in order that he may make good the
omission.   If the omission is made good, the date of receipt of the omitted elements shall be
designated as the application filing date.  If the omission is not made good, the application shall be
treated as null and void.
Art. 65.- Examination of the application.The National Industrial Property Office shall determine whether the subject matter of the
application constitutes an industrial design in ac cordance with Art. 54, whether it falls within the
prohibition of Art. 55(3) and whether it meets the requirements of Art. 58.
Art. 66.- Ruling and registration.
If these requirements are met, the National Industrial Property Office shall register the
industrial design, issue a registration certificate containing the data included in the corresponding
registration, and order that the registration be published in the official organ.
(b) Nature of the protection
The nature of the protection conferred on industrial designs is established in Arts. 59 and 60
of the Law:
Art. 59.- Scope of protection.
(1) The protection granted an industrial design confers on its owner the right to prevent
third parties from exploiting the design.  Thus, with the limitations for which the Law provides, the
owner has the right to proceed against anyone who, without his authorization, manufactures, sells,offers for sale or uses, or imports or stocks for any of these purposes a product that reproduces or
incorporates the protected industrial design, or whose appearance gives the same general impression
as made by the protected industrial design.IP/C/W/285
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(2) The performance of one of the acts mentioned in paragraph 1) shall not be considered
lawful merely because the design reproduced or incorporated is applied to a type or kind of product
different from that indicated in the registration of the protected design.
Art. 60.- Limitations on the protection of an industrial design.
(1) The protection accorded to an industrial design shall not extend to those elements or
characteristics of the design that are determined solely by the performance of a technical function and
fail to incorporate any arbitrary contribution by the designer.
(2) The protection accorded to an industrial design shall not extend to those elements or
characteristics of the design whose reproduction is necessary to enable the product incorporating the
design to be mechanically assembled or connected to another product of which it forms an integral
part.
17. Please describe the procedure that must be followed to obtain protection for textile
designs and cite to the relevant provisions of law or regulation.
The procedure for registering textile designs is the same as for any other industrial design.
Thus, the provisions mentioned in response to the previous question are applicable, and in particular
Art. 63(b) which reads as follows:
(1) Applications for the registration of an industrial design shall be filed with the
National Industrial Property Office and shall include the following:
(b) a graphic or photographic reproduction of an industrial design, it being permissible to
submit more than one view of the design if the latter is three-dimensional; in the case
of two-dimensional designs on a textile fabric, paper or other flat material, the
reproduction may be replaced by a sample of the product that incorporates the design.
F. PATENTS
18. Please describe in detail the way in which the patent law of the Dominican Republic
implements Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement, indicating any exceptions provided for, and
including details regarding the protection for micro-organisms and non-biological and
microbiological processes and plant varieties.  Please identify any pending legislation with
respect to plant patent protection and any sui generis protection that is provided.  Please cite to
the relevant provisions of the law.
Article 27 of the TRIPS is incorporated in Arts. 1 and 3 of Law 20-00 which read:
Art. 1.-  Definition of inventionAn invention is any idea or creation of the human intellect capable of industrial application
that meets the patentability requirements of this Law.  An invention may relate to a product or
a process.
Art. 3.- Patentability requirements.
An invention is patentable if it is capable of industrial application, is new and involves an
inventive step.IP/C/W/285
Page 23
Article 2 provides for the following exceptions to patentability:
Art. 2. – Subject matter excluded from patent protection.(1) Subject matter that does not conform with the definition in Article 1 of this Law shall
be deemed not to be an invention and shall therefore be excluded from patent protection.  In
particular, the following are deemed not to be inventions:
(a) Discoveries which consist in making known something that already exists in nature,
scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) exclusively aesthetic creations;(c) economic or business plans, rules or methods and those relating to purely intellectual
or industrial activities or the playing of games;
(d) methods of presenting information;(e) computer programs;(f) diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals;
(g) any kind of living matter and substances pre-existing in nature;
(h) juxtapositions of known inventions and mixtures of known products and variations of
their shape, size or materials, unless they are combined or fused so that they cannot
function separately or their characteristic qualities or functions are modified to obtainan industrial result not obvious to a person skilled in the art;
(i) products or processes already patented, put to a use different from that contemplated
in the initial patent.
(2)  The following inventions shall not be patentable or publishable:
(a) Those whose exploitation would be contrary to ordre public  or morality;
(b) those which are clearly contrary to human or animal health or could cause
serious prejudice to the environment;
(c) plants and animals, other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological
processes for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological
and microbiological processes.   New plant varieties shall be protected under
a special law, in accordance with Article  27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement.
The implementing regulations for Law 20-00, Regulation No. 408-00, establish the following
procedure for the deposit of  micro-organisms and biological substances:
Art. 6.-   Deposit of biological material and micro-organisms.
Until the institutions for receiving deposits of biological material needed to describe
applications relating to micro-organisms are designated, applicants may deposit such material
with any of the international deposit authorities recognized by the Budapest Treaty on theIP/C/W/285
Page 24
International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent
Procedure of 28 April 1977.
In any event, such deposit institutions must satisfy the following conditions:
• be permanent;
• not be under the control of the depositors;
• have the appropriate personnel and facilities for checking the relevance of the deposit
and ensuring its storage and preservation without risk of contamination;
• provide the security measures necessary to minimize the risk of loss of biological
material.
19. Please describe in detail the rights provided patent holders under the patent law of the
Dominican Republic and cite to the relevant provis ions of law.  Please confirm that the rights
described in Article 28.1 of the TRIPS Agreement are provided to patent owners in the
Dominican Republic.
Under Law 20-00 the patent holder has the right to prevent third parties from making, using,
offering for sale, selling or importing the patented pr oduct, without his consent.  If the patent is for a
process, he may prevent third parties from using the process or offering for sale, selling or importing
the product obtained directly by that process, without his consent.  These provisions can be found inArt. 29, which reads as follows:
Art. 29.- Rights and protection conferred by a patent.(1) A patent shall confer on its owner the right to exclude third parties from exploiting
the patented invention  Thus, with the limitations for which the Law provides, the patent holder shall
have the right to proceed against anyone who, without his authorization, performs any of the
following acts:
(a) Where the patent has been granted for a product:
(i) makes the product;
(ii) offers for sale, sells or uses the product or imports or stocks it for any of these
purposes.
(b) where the patent has been granted for a process:
(i) uses the process;
(ii) performs any of the acts indicated in subparagraph a) with respect to a
product obtained directly by using the process.
(2) The scope of the protection conferred by a patent shall be determined by the claims.
The claims shall be interpreted in the light of the description and drawings and, where applicable, the
biological material deposited.
20. Please describe in detail any provisions in the laws of the Dominican Republic
permitting unauthorized use of a patent, citing to  the relevant provisions of law, and describe in
detail the conditions under which such use can occur.IP/C/W/285
Page 25
Law 20-00 permits certain uses without the authorization of the right holder, but these cases
are exhaustively listed in Arts. 30, 31, 40 and 44 of the Dominican law.  These exceptions to the rights
conferred on the patent holder are similar  to those contained in Arts. 30 and 31 of the TRIPS
Agreement.
Art. 30.- Limitation and exhaustion of patent rights.
A patent does not give the right to prevent:(a) Acts performed in a private environment and for non-commercial purposes;(b) acts performed exclusively for experimental purposes with respect to the patented
invention;
(c) acts performed exclusively for the purposes of teaching or scientific or academic
research;
(d) the sale, rental, use, usufruct, importation or any other mode of marketing of a
product protected by the patent or obtained by the patented process, once that product
has been introduced into the commerce of an y country, with the consent of the owner
or a licensee or in any other lawful way.  Products or processes that infringe industrial
property law shall not be deemed to have been lawfully introduced;
(e) acts mentioned in Art. 5 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial
Property;
(f) where the patent protects biological material capable of being reproduced, the use of
that material as the basis for obtaining a viable new biological material, except where
the patented material must be used repeatedly to obtain the new material;
(g) those uses which are necessary to obtain sanitary approval and to market a product
after the patent protecting it has expired.
Art. 31.-  Rights of a prior user of the invention.(1) The rights conferred by a patent may not be asserted against a person who, in good
faith and before the filing date or, where applicable, the priority date of the corresponding patent
application, was already producing the product or using the process constituting the invention in the
country, or had made effective and serious preparations for such production or use.
(2) Such a person shall have the right to continue producing the product or using the
process as before, or to begin production or use as planned.  This right may only be assigned or
transferred together with the business or establishment in which the product or process is being or is
to be produced or used.
(3) The exception for which this article provides shall not apply if the person wishing to
avail himself thereof has acquired his knowledge of the invention unlawfully.
Art. 40.- Compulsory licences.(1) Where a potential user has made efforts to obtain a licence from the patent owner on
reasonable commercial terms and conditions and such efforts have not been successful within twoIP/C/W/285
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hundred and ten (210) days of the licence being requested, the National Industrial Property Office,
after hearing the owner, may issue compulso ry licences in relation to that patent.
PARAGRAPH.- Wherever warranted, the Natio nal Industrial Property Office shall grant
compulsory licences if the interested party can show:
(a) That he possesses the technical and economic capacity to undertake the use in
question.  His technical capacity shall be assessed by the competent authority, in
accordance with the specific national provisions in force for each branch of activity.
Economic capacity shall be understood to mean the ability to fulfil the obligations
arising out of the working of the patent;
(b) where the patent relates to a raw material from which it is intended to develop a
finished product, that the applicant is able to develop the finished product himself or
through third parties in the country, except in those cases in which production in the
national territory is impossible.
(2) In determining what is to be understood by reasonable commercial terms and
conditions, account shall be taken of the particular circumstances of each case and the economic value
of the authorization, bearing in mind the average fees for the sector in question established in
commercial licensing agreements between independent parties.
Art. 44.- Conditions for granting compulsory licences.
(1) Where compulsory licences are granted, the following provisions shall apply:(a) Licences shall be granted by the National Industrial Property Office;(b) the particular circumstances of each case shall be considered;(c) compulsory licences shall extend to such patents for components and processes as
enable them to be exploited;
(d) the grant of a licence shall be non-exclusive;(e) licences shall be non-assignable, except with that part of the enterprise or its goodwill
in which they are incorporated;
(f) licences shall be granted predominantly for the supply of the domestic market, except
in the cases specified in Arts. 41 and 46;
(g) the patent owner shall be paid reasonable remuneration, in accordance with the
particular circumstances of each case, with account for the economic value of the
authorization.  In determining the amount of remuneration in cases in which
compulsory licences have been granted to remedy anti-competitive practices, the needto correct such practices shall be taken into account and termination of the grant may
be refused if it is considered that the conditions which led to the granting of the
licence are likely to recur.
(2) A person granted a compulsory licence must begin exploiting it within two years of
the licence having been granted.IP/C/W/285
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(3) Where the patent protects some form of semi-conductor technology, compulsory
licences shall be granted only for public non-commercial use, or to remedy a practice declared to be
anti-competitive.
(4) A compulsory licence may be terminated, in whole or in part, by the competent
authority, at the request of the owner, if the circum stances which led to its being granted cease to exist
and are unlikely to recur, provided that such te rmination does not adversely affect the legitimate
interests of the licensee.
(5) A compulsory licence may be modified by the competent authority, at the request of
an interested party, where justified by new facts or circumstances.
21.  What term of protection does the patent law of the Dominican Republic provide for
patents?  Please describe any provisions for extension of the term of protection and cite to the
relevant provisions of the law.
Article 27 of Law 20-00 establishes a non-extendible term of twenty (20) years from the date
of filing of the application in the Dominican Republic.
22. Please explain whether Article 2(1) or any other provisions of the Industrial Property
Law of the Dominican Republic provide for the protection of new uses for known products, as
required by Article 27.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
[Not applicable]
G. LAYOUT -DESIGNS (TOPOGRAPHIES ) OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
23. Please describe in detail the protection for layout-designs of integrated circuits provided
under the laws of the Dominican Republic, including the term of protection, and cite to the
relevant provisions of law.  .
The protection of rights in layout-designs of integrated circuits will be governed by special
legislation in the process of being reviewed by the Executive Branch before being submitted to the
National Congress.
H. PROTECTION OF UNDISCLOSED INFORMATION
24. Please describe in detail how the laws of the Dominican Republic provide for the
protection of undisclosed information as required by Article 39.2 of the TRIPS Agreement and
provide citations to the relevant provisions of law.
The protection of undisclosed information, as required by Art. 39.2 of the TRIPS Agreement,
is dealt with in Title VI, Chapter I of Law 20-00 entitled “Acts of unfair competition”.  In particular,
attention is drawn to Arts. 178, 179, 180 and 183, which read as follows:
Art. 178.- Definition and conditions for the protection of a trade secret.(1) Any undisclosed commercial information within the control of a natural or juridical
person that can be used for a productive, industrial or commercial activity and is capable of being
transmitted to a third party shall be deemed to be a trade secret.
(2) A trade secret shall be recognized as such for protection purposes if the constituent
information:IP/C/W/285
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(a) Is not, as a body or in the precise configuration and assembly of its components,
generally known among or readily accessible to persons within the circles that
normally deal with such information;  and
(b) has been subject to reasonable steps by the person lawfully in control thereof to keep
it secret.
Art. 179.- Unfair competition in relation to trade secrets.The following acts performed in relation to a trade secret shall constitute unfair competition:
(a) Exploiting, without the authorization of the legitimate holder, a trade secret to which
access has been had under a duty of secrecy resulting from a contractual or
employment relationship;
(b) communicating or disclosing, without the authorization of the legitimate holder, the
trade secret referred to in subparagraph a) for one’s own advantage or that of a third
party or with the intention of injuring the said holder;
(c) acquiring a trade secret by means that are unlawful or contrary to honest commercial
practices;
(d) exploiting, communicating or disclosing a trade secret acquired by the means referred
to in subparagraph (c);
(e) exploiting a trade secret obtained from another when the exploiter knows, or should
have known, that  the person who communicated the secret has acquired it by the
means referred to in subparagraph c), or has not been authorized to communicate it by
the legitimate holder;
(f) communicating or disclosing a trade secret obtained in accordance with
subparagraph (e), for one’s own advantage or that of a third party, or with the
intention of injuring the legitimate holder of the trade secret.
Art. 180.- Unfair means of access to a trade secret.A trade secret shall be considered to have been acquired by means contrary to honest custom
and practice where such acquisition is the result of, among other things, industrial espionage, breachof a contract or other obligation, betrayal of trust,  breach of a duty of loyalty or inducement to commit
any of these acts.
Art. 183.- Proceedings against an act of unfair competition.
(1) Anyone who considers himself to have been adversely affected by an act of unfair
competition may bring proceedings before the competent judicial authority.
(2) In addition to the person directly injured by the act, any association, federation, union
or other entity representing a professional or business group or consumers shall be entitled to bringproceedings if its members’ interests are adversely affected.IP/C/W/285
Page 29
25. Please describe in detail the manner in which protection is provided test data regarding
pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical prod ucts submitted to the government in order to
obtain marketing approval in the Dominican Republ ic and cite to the relevant provisions of law.
In accordance with the provisions of Art. 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, Art. 181 of the
Industrial Property Law specifies the following with respect to the protection of undisclosed
information submitted to the authorities to obtain marketing approval:
Art. 181.- Information for marketing approval.(1) Where the procedure before a competent national authority for obtaining approval for
the marketing or sale of a pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product that contains a newchemical component requires the submission of secr et data or information, these shall be protected
against unfair commercial use by third parties.
(2) The secret data or information referred to in the preceding subparagraph shall be
protected against disclosure.  The data or information may be disclosed by the competent nationalauthority where necessary to protect the public, or where adequate steps are taken to protect it against
unfair commercial use by third parties.
26. Are other applicants for ma rketing approval for their own versions of a previously
approved pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical products permitted to rely on data submittedby the earlier applicant?  If so, how long a period of exclusivity is given the earlier applicant
before such reliance becomes possible?
Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement establishes only two specific obligations, namely, (a)  to
protect such data against unfair commercial use, and (b) to protect such data against disclosure.  TheTRIPS Agreement does not impose any obligation to  prevent third parties obtaining marketing
approval for products identical or similar to those previously approved, nor does it provide for the
granting of any “period of exclusivity” in favour of a previous applicant for marketing approval.
Anyone may request and obtain from the competent authorities a marketing permit for his
own version of a previously approved pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product, provided that
he complies with the requirements of the relevant legislation.  The approval authority may notdiscriminate between earlier and later applicants, bein g required to treat all equally in accordance with
the law.
The mere fact of requesting a public authority to approve a pharmaceutical or agricultural
chemical product identical to another previously approved by the same authority does not constitute ause of the data held by that authority.  Persons requesting marketing approval for a second product
equivalent to another product previously approved cannot use the data submitted by the first applicant
since they do not have access to them.  As the information is confidential, the health authority may
not communicate such data to the later applicant or allow him access to them.
I. E
NFORCEMENT
27. Please describe in detail the manner in which the laws of the Dominican Republic
provide for effective action against infringement of intellectual property rights as required by
Article 41.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The requirements of Art. 41.1 of the TRIPS Agreement are incorporated in various articles of
our industrial property legislation.IP/C/W/285
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(A)  Expeditious administrative procedures to prevent infringements are set out in Art. 154 of Law
20-00 which concerns proceedings before the National Industrial Property Office:
Art. 154. Proceedings before the National Industrial Property Office.
Proceedings before the National Industrial Property Office shall be conducted in accordance
with the following rules:
(a) Complaints shall be made, in writing, to the head of the relevant department, who
shall rule thereon with the assistance of  two examiners from his own department.
(b) The head of the relevant department shall, within ten (10) days of the date of receipt,
notify the complaint to the right holder who shall have thirty (30) days from the date
of notification in which to respond.
(c) All those entered in the register and anyone having any registered right relating to the
industrial property right forming the subject of the complaint shall be notified of thecomplaint within ten (10) days of the date of receipt.
(d) The initiator of the proceedings shall be notified of the right holder’s response within
ten (10) days of receipt in order that he may exercise his right of reply, within thirty
(30) days of receipt of the notification.  The head of the relevant department shallissue a duly reasoned resolution within two (2) months of the expiration of the final
time-limit accorded to the parties.
(e) Once the arguments have been presented and the evidence taken, the case shall be
submitted to the head of the department and the examiners for decision and, if thenature of the complaint so requires, one or more technical reports may be requested.
(f) The head of the relevant department shall issue a duly reasoned resolution within
three (3) months of the expiration of the final time-limit accorded to the parties.
(g) The parties shall be notified of the resolution issued by the head of the department in
the manner prescribed by the regulations.
(B) Infringements and judicial procedures are the subject of Arts. 166 and 167 of Law 20-00.
Where criminal procedures are concerned, violations of the Law are categorized as ordinary
offences punishable by imprisonment and a fine.
Art. 166.-  Penalties.A penalty of three months’ to two years’ ordinary imprisonment or a fine of ten to fifty
minimum wages, or both, shall be incurred by anyone who wilfully:
(a) Without the consent of the owner of a distinctive sign makes commercial use of an
identical sign or a registered trademark, or a direct copy or fraudulent imitation
thereof, in relation to products or services that it distinguishes or to related products
or services;
(b) without the consent of the owner of a dist inctive sign performs any of the following
acts in relation to a trade name, label or emblem:IP/C/W/285
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(i) makes commercial use of an identical distinctive sign for an identical or
related business;
(ii) makes commercial use of a similar distinctive sign when it is likely to create
confusion;
(c) makes commercial use in relation to a product or service of a geographical indication
that is false or likely to mislead the public as to the origin of that product or service or
as to the identity of the producer, manufacturer or supplier of the product or service;
(d) makes commercial use in relation to a product of a false or misleading appellation of
origin, or an imitation of an appellation of origin, even where the true origin of the
product is indicated, or the appellation is used in translation or accompanied by
expressions such as "type", "kind", "style", "imitation" or the like;
(e) continues to use an unregistered trademark confusingly similar to another registered
trademark, or after an administrative penalty imposed for this reason has becomefinal;
(f) offers products for sale or introduces them into circulation or provides services with
the trademarks referred to in connection with the previous infringement;
(g) manufactures or develops products protected by a patent or utility model, without the
consent of the owner or without the appropriate licence;
(h) offers for sale or introduces into circulation products covered by a patent or utility
model, knowing them to have been manufactured or developed without the consent ofthe owner of the patent or registration or without the appropriate licence;
(i) used patented processes without the permission of the patent owner or without the
appropriate licence;
(j) offers for sale, sells or uses, imports or stocks products that are the direct result of the
use of patented processes, knowing them to have been used without the consent of theowner of the patent or the licensee;
(k) reproduces or imitates industrial designs protected by registration, without the
consent of the owner or without the appropriate licence;
(l) without being the owner of a patent or utility model or enjoying the rights conferred
thereby, makes use in his products or his advertising of appellations that could
mislead the public as to the existence thereof;
(ll) conceals information from the National Industrial Property Office or furnishes it with
false information in order to obtain a patent that does not meet the requirements of
patentability.
PARAGRAPH.-  Liability for the acts described above extends to persons who order them or
arrange for them to be carried out, the legal representatives of corporate entities and all thosewho, knowing the act to be unlawful, take part in, facilitate or conceal it.
Art.  167.- Proceedings.IP/C/W/285
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(1) Proceedings for the imposition of the penalties indicated in the preceding article shall
be initiated by the right holder.
(2) The provisions of ordinary criminal law shall be residually applicable, always
provided that they do not conflict with the present law.
(3) None of the procedures to which the application of the present law may give rise shall
be subject to the provision of the prior security laid down in Art. 16 of the Civil Code and Arts. 166
and 167 of the Code of Civil Procedure and its amendments.
(C) The civil procedures are described in Art. 168 and the penalties of ordinary law and
provisional measures in Arts. 173, 174 and 175 of Law 20-00:
Art. 168.- Civil remedies for infringement.(1) A right holder protected under this law may bring a civil action before the competent
court against anyone who infringes that right.  He may also proceed against anyone who performs actsthat clearly reveal the imminence of an infringement.
(2) In the event of co-ownership of a right, any of the co-owners may bring an action for
infringement of that right, without it being necessary to obtain the consent of the others, unless
otherwise agreed.
Art. 173.-   Enforceable measures in actions for infringement.In an action for infringement of rights protected under this law, one or more of the following
measures may be requested:
(a) Cessation of the infringing acts;(b) indemnification for damage suffered;(c) seizure of the products of the infringement, of any advertising material referring to
those products and of means used exclusively for committing the infringement;
(d) the transfer of ownership of the products and means referred to in subparagraph c), in
which case the value of the products will be deducted from the damages;
(e) measures necessary to prevent the continuation or repetition of the infringement,
including the destruction of the means seized under subparagraph c), if indispensable.
Art. 174.-  Provisional measures.(1) Whoever initiates or is about to initiate an action for infringement of an industrial
property right may request the court to order immediate provisional measures, for the purpose of
ensuring the effectiveness of the action or the payment of any damages.
(2) The court shall only order provisional measures if the person requesting them can
show, by producing evidence deemed sufficient by the court, that an infringement has been committedor is imminent.
(3) Provisional measures may be requested before, after or concurrently with the
initiation of an action for infringement.  If the measures are ordered before the action is initiated, theyIP/C/W/285
Page 33
shall be rendered null and void if an action is not brought within ten (10) days of the order being
issued.
(4) The competent court may order as provisional measures those which are appropriate
to ensure the enforcement of the judgement hand ed down in the corresponding proceedings.  The
following provisional measures, among others, may be ordered:
(a) The immediate cessation of the acts which allegedly constitute an infringement,
except where the defendant opts to continue performing the said acts by providing
such security or other assurance as shall be prescribed by the court;
(b) the preventive seizure, inventorying or deposit of samples of the articles forming the
subject of the infringement and of m eans intended exclusively for committing the
infringement;
(c) the competent court shall order the plaintiff to provide security or equivalent
assurance sufficient to indemnify the defendant, should the final decision be in thelatter’s favour, for any damage he may have suffered as a result of the complaint;
(d) if the holder of a trademark right has good reason to suspect that goods are about to
be imported under conditions such that his rights would be impaired, he may request
the court to order the Republic’s customs authorities to suspend, as a precautionarymeasure, the release of the said goods into free circulation or their exploitation, as the
case may be.
(5) The court shall only accept the request and adopt measures if the petitioner supplies,
together with the request and in writing, a sufficiently detailed description of the goods to make themreadily recognizable by the customs authorities.
(6) The court shall order the deposit with the court registry of a sum of money or security
equivalent to not less than three times the value of the import operation in question, in the form of
cash or a certified cheque, to cover any damage suffered by the defendant, should the plaintiff lose the
case.
Art. 175.- Calculation of damages.
In calculating damages, the portion corresponding to loss of income for which compensation
is required may be computed on the basis of any of the following criteria:
(a) The profits that would presumably have accrued to the right holder in the absence of
competition from the infringer;
(b) the profits earned by the infringer as a result of the infringing acts;
(c) the price that the infringer would have paid the right holder for a contractual licence,
with due regard for the commercial value of the subject matter of the right infringed
and the contractual licences already granted.
PARAGRAPH.- Anyone filing suit for infringement of rights shall be liable for any injury
caused to the alleged infringer in the event of malicious or reckless actions or complaints.
As far as the Law on Copyright is concerned, there are three possible courses of action (civil,
criminal and administrative).IP/C/W/285
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The civil remedies available to the holder of copyright protected by this law are set out in
Chapter II on “Civil actions and procedure”, Arts. 176 to 184.
In this connection, actions for damages under Art. 177 can be brought jointly with the public
action or separately in the civil courts before the court of first instance of the place of domicile of the
defendant (Art. 176).  According to this article, anyone who, without the consent of the holder,
performs any of the acts that constitute a moral or economic right recognized by law shall be liable to
the said holder for the injury caused by the infringement of his right, regardless of whether or not he
was aware of the infringement.
Other civil remedies available to the holders of rights recognized by the Law on Copyright
include, for example, requesting the court, without prior notification of the other party, to authorize
the attachment or sequestration of the unlawful objects or materials, in his own custody or in that of a
third party.  This action may be taken if the right holder has good reason to fear that his rights may be
infringed or that the elements of the unlawful ac t could disappear (Art. 179).  The right holder may
also request the court to order the immediate suspension of the unlawful activity, especially anyunlawful reproduction, distribution, communication to the public or importation.
Likewise, the holder of copyright or a related right, his successors in title or their contractual
representative, if they have reason to fear the infringement of their rights, may request the court of
first instance, before the main action is initiated, to  issue a warrant for the judicial inspection of the
place where the infringing acts are presumed to be taking place (Art. 180).
The attachment or sequestration measure ordered by the court may be lifted by the same court
as ordered the inspection, at the request of the party against whom it was enforced, if a main action for
infringement of the right is not initiated within 30 working days of enforcement (Art. 183).
Under Art. 184, non-resident foreign plaintiffs are not obliged to provide the judicatum solvi
security prescribed by Art. 16 of the Civil Code of the Dominican Republic and Arts. 166 and 167 of
the Code of Civil Procedure.
Criminal actions can be used to protect the holders of copyright or related rights and may be
brought by the holder, his successors in title or their contractual representative.  It is for the holder todecide whether to choose this route or to resort to civil or administrative proceedings in order to assert
his rights (Art. 168).   Articles 169 to 175 specify the penalties for infringements of copyright and
related rights.
The administrative procedures are described in Arts. 187 to 189 of the Law on Copyright.
28. Article 43.1 of the TRIPS Agreement requires that judges be authorized to order
production of evidence necessary to substantiate a party's claims where that party has been
unable to obtain such evidence from the opposi ng party.  Please describe how the laws or
regulations of the Dominican Republic provide this authorization, citing to the relevantprovisions of law or regulation.
Law 834 of 1978 establishes the general procedure in civil proceedings for the production of
evidence or the communication of documents within the control of the other party or a third party.
This judicial procedure is described in Arts. 55, 56, 57, 58 and 59 of the aforementioned Law 834:
“Communication of documents between the parties.IP/C/W/285
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Art. 55.- If in the course of an action a party makes use of a public or private instrument to
which it has not been a party, or of a document that is in the possession of a third party, it may request
the trial court to order that a certified copy be handed over or the instrument or document produced.
Art. 56.- The request shall be made without formality.Should the court deem the request to be well-founded, it shall order that the instrument or
document be handed over or produced, in the original, or as a copy or extract thereof, depending on
the circumstances, under the conditions and with such guarantees as it may specify, if necessary on
pain of a fine.
Art. 57.- The court’s decision shall be provisionally enforceable, summarily if necessary.Art. 58.- Should difficulties arise, or should any lawful claim be raised, the court that ordered
the handing over or production of the documents may, upon request made to it without formality,
retract or change its decision.  Third parties may file an appeal against the new decision within 15
days of its being handed down.
Art. 59.- The production of evidence in the possession of one of the parties shall be requested
and the evidence produced in accordance with the provisions of Arts. 55 and 56.
Moreover, in the case of process patents Law 20-00 establishes a rebuttable legal presumption
that removes the burden of proof from the patent  owner and obliges the defendant to disprove that
presumption ( juris tantum ).  Thus, Art. 170 reads as follows:
Art. 170.-  Presumption of use of the patented process.
(1) For the purposes of civil proceedings, if the subject matter of a patent is a process for
obtaining a product that is new under the terms of this law, the competent court may order a defendant
who markets an identical product to prove that the process used to obtain that product is different
from the patented process.  In the adduction of proof to the contrary, the legitimate interests of the
defendant in protecting his manufacturing and business secrets shall be taken into account.
(2) In the cases contemplated by this article, it shall be presumed, in the absence of proof
to the contrary, that any identical product produced by a third party, without the consent of the patent
owner, has been obtained by the patented process, provided that the product obtained by the patented
process is new under the terms of this law.
29. Please describe in detail all of the civil remedies that are available to right holders under
the laws of the Dominican Republic, citing to the relevant provisions of law or regulation.
Civil remedies are rights which our legislation accords to the holder of an industrial property
right who considers his right has been or is about to be infringed.  These remedies are described in
Arts. 168, 173 and 175 of Law 20-00, which read as follows:
Art. 168.- Civil remedies for infringement.(1) A right holder protected under this law may bring a civil action before the competent
court against anyone who infringes that right.  He may also proceed against anyone who performs actsthat clearly reveal the imminence of an infringement.IP/C/W/285
Page 36
(2) In the event of co-ownership of a right, any of the co-owners may bring an action for
infringement of that right, without it being necessary to obtain the consent of the others, unless
otherwise agreed.
Art. 173.-   Enforceable measures in actions for infringement.In an action for infringement of rights protected under this law, one or more of the following
measures may be requested:
(a) Cessation of the infringing acts;(b) indemnification for damage suffered;(c) seizure of the products of the infringement, of any advertising material referring to
those products and of means used exclusively for committing the infringement;
(d) the transfer of ownership of the products and means referred to in subparagraph (c),
in which case the value of the goods will be deducted from the damages;
(e) measures necessary to prevent the continuation or repetition of the infringement,
including the destruction of the means seized under subparagraph c), if indispensable.
Art. 175.- Calculation of damages.
To calculate damages, the portion corresponding to loss of income that must be compensated
for shall be computed on the basi s of any of the following criteria:
(a) The profits that would presumably have accrued to the right holder in the absence of
competition from the infringer;
(b) the profits earned by the infringer as a result of the infringing acts;(c) the price that the infringer would have paid the right holder for a contractual licence,
with due regard for the commercial value of the subject matter of the right infringedand the contractual licences already granted.
PARAGRAPH.- Anyone filing suit for infringement of rights shall be liable for any injury
caused to the alleged infringer in the event of malicious or reckless actions or complaints.
The civil remedies in the field of copyright and related rights are described in Arts. 176 to 184
of the Law on Copyright (see the response to the previous question).
30. Please describe in detail the provisional procedures and remedies available to right
holders under the laws of the Dominican Republic, citing to the relevant provisions of law andregulation, and indicate any condition under which a right holder may avail itself of those
procedures and remedies.
The provisional or precautionary measures for protecting holders of industrial property rights
are set out in Art. 174 of Law 20-00 and are ordered by a court at the request of the holder.  Thealleged infringer may request the lifting of the measures upon providing security or other assurance in
the amount prescribed by the court ordering the measure:
Art. 174.-  Provisional measures.IP/C/W/285
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(1) Whoever initiates or is about to initiate an action for infringement of an industrial
property right may request the court to order immediate provisional measures, for the purpose of
ensuring the effectiveness of the action or the payment of any damages.
(2) The court shall only order provisional measures if the person requesting them can
show, by producing evidence deemed sufficient by the court, that an infringement has been committed
or is imminent.
(3) Provisional measures may be requested before, after or concurrently with the
initiation of an action for infringement.  If the measures are ordered before the action is initiated, they
shall be rendered null and void if an action is not brought within ten (10) days of the order beingissued.
(4) The competent court may order as provisional measures those which are appropriate
to ensure the enforcement of the judgement hand ed down in the corresponding proceedings.  The
following provisional measures, among others, may be ordered:
(a) The immediate cessation of the acts which allegedly constitute an infringement,
except where the defendant opts to continue performing the said acts by providing
such security or other assurance as shall be prescribed by the court;
(b) the preventive seizure, inventorying or deposit of samples of the articles forming the
subject of the infringement and of m eans intended exclusively for committing the
infringement;
(c) the competent court shall order the plaintiff to provide security or equivalent
assurance sufficient to indemnify the defendant, should the final decision be in the
latter’s favour, for any damage he may have suffered as a result of the complaint;
(d) if the holder of a trademark right has good reason to suspect that goods are about to
be imported under conditions such that his rights would be impaired, he may request
the court to order the Republic’s customs authorities to suspend, as a precautionary
measure, the release of the said goods into free circulation or their exploitation, as thecase may be.
(5) The court shall only accept the request and adopt measures if the petitioner supplies,
together with the request and in writing, a sufficiently detailed description of the goods to make them
readily recognizable by the customs authorities.
(6) The court shall order the deposit with the court registry of a sum of money or security
equivalent to not less than three times the value of the import operation in question, in the form of
cash or a certified cheque, to cover any damage suffered by the defendant, should the plaintiff lose the
case.
J. S
PECIAL REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO BORDER MEASURES
31. Please describe in detail the procedures under the laws of the Dominican Republic that
provide for border enforcement at least for trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy,
identifying the competent authority and citing to  the relevant provisions of law or regulation.
The border measures for the protection of industrial property rights described in Art. 51 of the
TRIPS Agreement are included among the provisional measures that may be requested by a rightIP/C/W/285
Page 38
holder who considers himself to have been injured and, in particular, in Art. 174.4(d), 5 and 6 of
Law 20-00.
Art. 174.-  Provisional measures.
(4) The competent court may order as provisional measures those which are appropriate
to ensure the enforcement of the judgement hand ed down in the corresponding proceedings.  The
following provisional measures, among others, may be ordered:
(d) if the holder of a trademark right has good reason to suspect that goods are about to
be imported under conditions such that his rights would be impaired, he may request
the court to order the Republic’s customs authorities to suspend, as a precautionarymeasure, the release of the said goods into free circulation or their exploitation, as the
case may be.
(5) The court shall only accept the request and adopt measures if the petitioner supplies,
together with the request and in writing, a sufficiently detailed description of the goods to make themreadily recognizable by the customs authorities.
(6) The court shall order the deposit with the court registry of a sum of money or security
equivalent to not less than three times the value of the import operation in question, in the form of
cash or a certified cheque, to cover any damage suffered by the defendant, should the plaintiff lose thecase.
At the same time, under Art. 185 in Chapter III of the Law on Copyri ght concerning border
measures, where they have good reason to suspect that their rights may be infringed by the imminent
importation or exportation of unlawful goods, holders of copyright or related rights, their successorsin title, their contractual representative or the collective rights management society concerned may
request the General Customs Directorate of the Do minican Republic or the competent office of the
Fiscal Attorney to suspend the release of the goods into free circulation.  These authorities may
suspend the release of the goods ex officio.
Under Art. 185.I, if the General Directorate of Customs orders the suspension of release of
the goods it must notify both the requesting party and the importer of the measure taken, so that therequesting party may file an action on the merits or request other measures.  For his part, the owner,
importer or consignee of the goods may then apply to  the court of first instance in civil or criminal
matters for the modification or annulment of the suspension order.
It should be noted that the National Commissi on for the Protection of Intellectual Property
Rights, established by the government under Decree 303-01 of 2 March 2001, is coordinating the
work of the various bodies entrusted with the application of the Industrial Property and Copyright
Laws (ONAPI and ONDA) and, together with the General Directorate of Customs, is giving technical
customs personnel special training in the application of the border measures for which the TRIPS
Agreement provides.
32. Please indicate if border enforcement is available to owners of other forms of intellectual
property and, if so, please describe the procedures and remedies available in relation to each
form of intellectual property, citing the relevant provisions of law.
The intellectual property legislation of the Dominican Republic (the Industrial Property Law
and the Law on Copyright and Related Rights) does not provide expressly for border measures for
other forms of intellectual property.IP/C/W/285
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33. Article 58 of the TRIPs Agreement specif ies procedures to be followed where the
competent authorities can act ex officio.  Please explain whether the competent authorities in the
Dominican Republic are empowered to act ex officio and, if so, please identify the intellectual
property areas subject to ex officio action.
Law 65-00 on Copyright allows the judicial and administrative authorities to act ex officio to
protect copyright and related rights, without the need for a prior complaint.
Thus, Art. 185 of the Law on Copyright stipulates that the customs authorities may adopt
border measures ex officio to prevent the importati on or exportation of goods that infringe copyright
or neighbouring rights.
As far as industrial property rights are concerned, under Law 20-00 civil actions for
infringement of such rights must be initiated by the right holder who considers himself to have been
injured.  With respect to the criminal offences listed under Art. 166 of Law 20-00, the Office of the
Attorney General may act ex officio only in the event of a flagrant offence, in accordance with Art. 32
of the Dominican Code of Criminal Procedure.
K. CRIMINAL PROCEDURES
34. Please describe in detail how the laws of the Dominican Republic implement Article 61
of the TRIPS Agreement that requires Members to have criminal procedures and penalties,
including imprisonment and/or monetary fines suffic ient to act as a deterrent, at least for cases
of wilful trademark counterfeiting and copyright infringement on a commercial scale.  Please
cite to the relevant provisions of law and regulation.
Title V of Law 20-00 establishes violations of i ndustrial property rights and its Single Chapter
describes the acts that qualify as offences, the penalties for those acts, the procedure to be followedand the conditions of extinction of the public right of action.
Article 166 prescribes correctional prison sentences ranging from 3 months to 2 years and a
fine of from ten to fifty minimum wages, or both, fo r counterfeiting or using, without authorization, a
distinctive sign or trademark, infringing a geographical indication, infringing the rights of a patent
owner, infringing the rights in an industrial desi gn or utility model, and concealing information from
or supplying false information to the National Industr ial Property Office in order to obtain a patent.
The final paragraph of the article establishes the liability of those who take part in the infringement or,
being aware of it, conceal it.  (See text of Art. 166 in the response to Question 26 concerning
enforcement.)
Also relevant are the provisions of Art. 167 on criminal proceedings, which must be initiated
by the right holder, where it is expressly established that non-resident foreigners do not have to
provide the prior security prescribed by Art. 16 of the Civil Code and Arts. 166 and 167 of the
Dominican Code of Civil Procedure.
In Law 65-00, Art. 61 of the TRIPS Agreemen t is implemented by Arts. 168 to 172.   In
particular, Art. 168 allows the right holder to choose between civil and criminal proceedings.
Article 169 establishes a penalty of three months’ to three years’ ordinary imprisonment and a
fine of from fifty to one thousand minimum wages.  Article 170 also establishes a fine of from ten to
fifty minimum wages for improper use of the work beyond that authorized by the holder of theprotected rights.IP/C/W/285
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Under Art. 172, if the infringement threatens the livelihood of the right holder, the fine may
be increased to three times the amount of the materi al damage caused, and if insolvent, the infringer
will be liable to one day in prison for each peso left unpaid.
35. Article 61 also requires that remedies in a ppropriate cases include the seizure, forfeiture
and destruction of infringing goods and any materials and implements the predominant use of
which has been the commission of the offence.  Pl ease describe the provisions in the laws of the
Dominican Republic that provide for such remedies, and describe the circumstances in which
those remedies would be imposed, citing to the relevant provisions of law or regulation.
The provisions of Art. 61 of the TRIPS Agreement are incorporated in Art. 173 of Industrial
Property Law 20-00, which empowers the competent court to order the closure of means ofproduction used exclusively for committing the infringement, the seizure of the products of the
infringement, and the awarding of the products seized  to the plaintiff or their destruction.  (See article
in response to Question 28 [ sic] of the Check-List of Issues on Enforcement, Doc. IP/N/6/DOM/1).
As for the Law on Copyright, under Art. 173 any unlawful reproduction may be confiscated
and, if the action succeeds, awarded to the right holder whose rights it served to infringe, unless the
latter asks for it to be destroyed.  The materials and equipment used in the unlawful acts may be
seized and destroyed or handed over to the injured party, without prejudice to any civil action for
damages which the latter may be entitled to bring against the infringer.
To provide a practical solution to the problem of materials that have clearly been unlawfully
reproduced remaining indefinitely in warehouses, often unnecessarily and at the same time protected
by the powers granted to the National Copyright Office (ONDA) under Law 65-00, Art. 116.7 of
Regulation No. 362-01 on the implementation of La w 65-00 authorized ONDA to proceed with the
destruction of unlawfully reproduced copies, as well as any moulds, plates, printing blocks, negativesor other articles intended for the production of such copies, subject to a reasoned decision and after
offering the parties the right to submit arguments and evidence and having first drawn up a detailed
inventory of the goods to be destroyed. In such  cases, ONDA will always retain a number of the
unlawful copies seized for submission to the court as evidence of infringement.
36. Article 61 also indicates that Members may provide for criminal procedures and
penalties in cases of wilful infringement of oth er forms of intellectual property.  Please describe
any provisions of the laws of the Dominican Re public that provide for such procedures and
remedies, citing to the relevant provisions of law or regulation.
Article 166 prescribes correctional prison sentences ranging from 3 months to 2 years and a
fine of from ten to fifty minimum wages, or both, for counterfeiting or making unauthorized use of a
distinctive sign or trademark, and for concealing information from or supplying false information to
the National Industrial Property Office in order to obtain a patent. The final paragraph of the article
establishes the liability of those who take part in the infringement or, being aware of it, conceal it.
(See responses to Questions 26, 33 and 34.)
The Industrial Property Law also prescribes criminal penalties for infringement of patents,
industrial designs, trade names, labels, commercial emblems and protected geographical indications.
Law 65-00 lists the various ways in which infringements violate the rights protected by the
Law, but it does not specifically categorize the cases in which aggravated penalties are applicable,except for the following:
(a) Under Art. 171(I), in the event of a repeat offence the maximum penalty may be
imposed on the repeat offender.IP/C/W/285
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(b) Article 172 increases the fine to three times the amount of material damage caused.
(c) Articles 119 and 120 of Regulation 362-01 implementing Law 65-00 concern that
which under the Regulation is considered to be serious misconduct.  In Art. 119 theseriousness of the offence is determined by taking into account its scope and
consequences.
Criminal proceedings are available to protect the holders of copyright and related rights and
can be brought by the holder or his successors in title or their contractual representative.  It is for the
holder to decide whether to choose this route or to resort to civil or administrative proceedings in
order to assert his rights (Art. 168).
37. Please explain how criminal remedies are "expeditious" and "avoid unwarranted
delays" so as to prevent infringements, as required by Articles 41.1 and 61 of the TRIPS
Agreement.
All the civil, criminal and administrative procedures for which the Dominican legislation
provides are fair and equitable.  None of these procedures is unnecessarily complicated or costly or
entails unreasonable time-limits or unwarranted de lays. Consequently, these procedures meet the
requirements of Arts. 41 and 61 of the TRIPS Agreement.
To fulfil its obligations under Arts. 41.1 and 61 of the TRIPS Agreement, at the
recommendation of the National Commission for the Pr otection of Intellectual Property Rights, the
Dominican government has established a Department for the Protection of Intellectual Property in the
Office of the Attorney General and in the Fiscal Attorney’s Offices of the judicial districts of Santo
Domingo and Santiago within the national territory, to enable effective and expeditious criminalproceedings to be brought against infringers of intellectual property rights.  The staff of these
departments receive special training in intellectual property and regularly collaborate with the
administrative authorities responsible for implementing government policy in this field.
In general, the Law on Copyright establishes civil and criminal procedures in favour of the
holder of a protected right, but in Arts. 186 ff. it grants powers to ONDA with a view to expediting
these procedures and preventing the disappearance of evidence of the unlawful act.  That is to say thatONDA may act directly, at the request of a party or ex officio, and may request the assistance of the
police, of the Attorney General’s Office and of INDOTEL, where telecommunications are concerned.
38. Please explain how administrative actions, procedures and remedies conducted by both
ONDA, the Copyright Office and INDOTEL, the Telecommunications Office, are being appliedin cases of copyright piracy at levels sufficient to provide a deterrent, as required under
Article 41 of the TRIPS Agreement.  Please explain how any pending legislation or regulations
may affect issues related to levels of criminal penalties or other procedures related to the
investigation and prosecution of copyright infringement cases.
Protecting copyright as effectively as possible, more specifically in order to comply with the
TRIPS Agreement, while removing any barriers to legitimate trade, is the basic objective of
Law 65-00.  ONDA and INDOTEL have concluded an in ter-institutional agreement under which they
are required to cooperate in combating copyright and telecommunications infringements and, in fact,
the two institutions have been working together on inspections and operational actions involvingbroadcasting organizations. ONDA is also working closely together with members of the Attorney
General’s Office to provide mutual assistance in copyright protection proceedings.IP/C/W/285
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As we have explained, the Dominican Republic ’s Law on Copyright (65-00) was promulgated
in August 2000, and its implementing regulations were issued in March 2001, so that our legislation
in this field is very recent and modern and fully adapted to the requirements of the international
agreements to which the Dominican Republic is party, such as the new WIPO conventions.  We
therefore regard it as one of the most complete in Latin America.
39. Please explain how the civil procedures and remedies afforded under the new Copyright
Law are being applied at levels adequate to compensate for the inju ry the right holder has
suffered, as required by Article 45.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Article 168 allows the holders of protected rights to choose between civil, criminal and
administrative proceedings.  No procedural object ion or delay with respect to this option will be
admitted for the continuation of the proceeding initia ted. Cases submitted to the courts of justice are
heard by the ordinary courts (Court of First Instan ce and its criminal or civil divisions, as the case
may be).
In order to provide quick and effective remedies for infringements of protected rights,
Arts. 111 and 112 of Regulation 362-01 empower ONDA to order, on an administrative basis, the
immediate cessation of the infringer’s unlawful activity, and to order and enforce preventive or
precautionary measures for:
- Preventing the infringement of any of the rights recognized by law and, in particular,
preventing the introduction of the allegedly infringing goods into the channels of
commerce, including measures to prevent the entry of imports;
- preserving relevant evidence relating to the alleged infringement.
These preventive or precautionary measures include:
(a) The immediate suspension or cessation of the unlawful activity;(b) the seizure or confiscation and withdrawal, without prior notice, of the copies
improperly produced or used and of the material and equipment employed to commit
the infringement, together with any relevant documentary evidence.
Actions for damages are the subject of Art. 177 of Law 65-00.  They can be brought jointly
with the public action or separately under the civil procedure before the court of first instance of the
place of domicile of the defendant (Art. 176).  Accord ing to this article, regardless of whether or not
he was aware of the wrongdoing, anyone who, without the consent of the holder, performs any of theacts that constitute a moral or economic right recognized by  law shall be liable to the holder for the
injury caused by the infringement of his right.
Under the administrative procedure, there is no express provision for ordering compensation
for injury suffered by the right holder; however, in arbitration proceedings, the National CopyrightOffice (ONDA) may establish civil damages, in accordance with the general rules of arbitration of
ordinary law, in compensation for the injury caused.
At the same time, the Law and its regulations empower ONDA to impose administrative
sanctions such as: warnings, fines, compensation for omissions, temporary closure of the infringingestablishment for up to 30 days, definitive closure, seizure or confiscation of unlawful copies,
destruction of unlawful copies, and publication of the decision at the infringer’s expense.IP/C/W/285
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40. Please explain how the Dominican Republic complies with the requirement that its civil
copyright enforcement procedures shall not entail unwarranted delays, as required by Article
41.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, and will permit effective action against any act of infringement,
as required by Article 41.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.
As already explained, Law 65-00 offers holders of protected rights a choice of three different
proceedings, civil, criminal and administrative (see Arts. 176 to 184 and 187(3)).
L. STATISTICAL INFORMATION
41. Please provide statistical information related  to civil copyright, trademark, geographical
indication, industrial design, patent, integr ated-circuit layout design, and trade secret
enforcement for 2000, including the number of cases filed; injunctions issued; infringing
products seized; infringing equipment seized; cases resolved (including settlement); and the
amount of damages awarded.
The Dominican Republic has no special system for registering or monitoring civil intellectual
property complaints, but between 12 May 2000 and 30 April 2001 the National Industrial PropertyOffice received a total of 560 new objections and applications for annulment; during the same period
338 pending cases were resolved, and 71 were administratively closed, under both Law 1450 and the
new Law 20-00.  These data cover only trademarks and trade names, as there were no administrative
complaints concerning other types of industrial property rights.
42. Please provide statistical information relat ed to criminal enforcement in the area of
copyright piracy and trademark infringeme nt for 2000, including the number of raids,
prosecutions, convictions, and the amount of fines and/or jail terms (including whether the fineswere paid and whether the jail term was actually served or was suspended) and any other
information establishing that the criminal syst em operates effectively to deter copyright piracy
and trademark counterfeiting.
In the year 2000, in the field of industrial property, 12 actions for violation of Law 20-00 of
8 May 2000 were brought before the criminal courts of the National District (capital of the Republic),
in only one of which did the plaintiff voluntarily withdraw the action.  In all cases, the Department for
the Protection of Intellectual Property seized goods as means of proof, but there are no statistical data
on how many of these actions led to first-degree convictions.
Since its creation in 1993, the National Copyri ght Office (ONDA) has taken important steps
to prevent and combat violations of the law.  The number of these actions has increased as a result of
the wider powers granted to ONDA under Law 65-00 of August 2000 and its implementing
Regulation No.362-01 of 14 March 2001.  Thus, between September 2000 and May 2001 there were
altogether 218 inspections, 103 operations to seize unlawful material and 80 recommendations forjudicial referral to the various Fiscal Attorneys of the Dominican Republic.IP/C/W/285
Page 44
JAPAN
A. COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS
1. Please explain exceptions or exemptions of  the National Treatment and Most-Favoured-
Nation Treatment under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Law, if any, as permitted inArticles 3 and 4 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Under Art. 8 of Law 65-00 of 21 August 2000 on Copyright, the protection of the law extends
to:
• Works whose author or, at least, one of whose co-authors is Dominican or domiciled
in the Dominican Republic.
• Works published for the first time in the Dominican Republic, or within thirty (30)
days of their first publication.
• Works of nationals or persons domiciled in member countries of any of the
international treaties to which the Dominican Republic is party or to which it mayaccede in the future.
• Works published for the first time in one of the member countries of such agreements
or treaties, or within 30 days of their first publication.
• Performances, phonographic productions and broadcasts, under the terms of the title
of this law concerning related rights.
The same article also provides that in the ab sence of an applicable international agreement,
foreign works, performances, phonographic productions and broadcasts will enjoy the protection of
the law, provided that in the country of origin ef fective reciprocity is accorded to Dominican authors,
performers, producers and broadcasters, as the case may be.
Thus, our copyright law accords to all copyright and related right holders who are nationals or
residents of other member countries of the international agreements to which the Dominican Republic
is party the same treatment as it accords to copyright and related right holders who are nationals or
residents of the Dominican Republic, and in the absence of an applicable international agreement
copyright and related right holders from foreign countries will receive the same protection as those
countries themselves accord to copyright and related right holders from the Dominican Republic.
At the same time, under Art. 184, non-resident foreigners are not obliged to provide the
judicatum solvi  security prescribed by Art. 16 of the Civil Code of the Dominican Republic and
Arts. 166 and 167 of the Code of Civil Procedure. This provision places foreign plaintiffs on the same
footing as national plaintiffs.
Clearly, these provisions of the law reflect the provisions of Art. 3 of the TRIPS Agreement.With regard to the most-favoured-nation treatment for which Art 4 of the TRIPS Agreement
provides, our Law on Copyright does not grant any additional advantage, favour, privilege or
immunity to the nationals of any one country that is not accorded to the nationals of other countries,
thus providing the same protection for copyright and related right holders of all other countries as itprovides for Dominican copyright and related right holders.IP/C/W/285
Page 45
SWITZERLAND
A. GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
1. Please explain in detail how your legislation provides protection for geographical
indications.
The protection established for geographical indications in Art. 22.2 of the TRIPS Agreement
is incorporated in Arts. 124 to 134 of the I ndustrial Property Law (Law 20-00).  These provide
protection for geographical indications in general and appellations of origin in particular.  Article 124
stipulates that a geographical indication may not be used in the course of trade in relation to a productor service if that indication is false or misleading w ith respect to the origin of the product or service or
if its use might create confusion in the mind of the public with respect to the origin, quality, source,
characteristics or properties of the product or service.
Under Art. 126 of Law 20-00, any interested party, and in particular producers, manufacturers
and craftsmen, consumers and the Office of the Attorney General may initiate proceedings,
individually or jointly, before the competent authorities to prevent the commercial use of a false or
misleading geographical indication.
Articles 127 to 134 of the Industrial Property Law (Law 20-00) permit the registration of
appellations of origin as a special type of geographical indication.
Moreover, Art. 128(a) declares the registration of a geographical indication unacceptable if it
could mislead trade circles or the public as to the source, nature, method of manufacture, qualities,
suitability for use or consumption, quantity or any other characteristic of the products or servicesconcerned.
B. P
ATENTS
2. Does your legislation grant patent protection to all categories of products or are there
any exceptions?  If so, please explain in detail what kind of exceptions exist and how they
comply with Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The exclusion from patentability of certain subject matter under Art. 2 of the Industrial
Property Law is based on the fact that it does not constitute an invention and therefore lies outside the
scope of the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement relating to patents or is subject matter whose
exclusion is permitted under Art. 27.2 and 3 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The exceptions to patentability for which Art. 2 of Law 20-00 provides are as follows:
(1) Discoveries which consist in making known something that already exists in nature,
scientific theories and mathematical methods; this is because the discovery of things
that already exist in nature does not const itute an invention, while scientific theories
and mathematical methods are protected by Law 65-00 on Copyright;
(2) exclusively aesthetic creations; these do not involve an inventive step and are
protected by Law 65-00 on Copyright;
(3) economic or business plans, rules or methods and those relating to purely intellectual
or industrial activities or the playing of games;IP/C/W/285
Page 46
(4) methods of presenting information, which are protected by Law 65-00 on Copyright;
(5) computer programs, which are also protected by Law 65-00 on Copyright (see Art. 10
of the TRIPS Agreement);
(6) diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals,
in accordance with Art. 27.3(a) of the TRIPS Agreement;
(7) any kind of living matter and substances pre-existing in nature, in accordance with
Art. 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement;
(8) juxtapositions of known inventions and mixtures of known products, since they are
not new;
(9) products or processes already patented, put to a use different from that contemplated
in the initial patent.
  Likewise, the following inventions are not patentable or publishable:
(a) Those whose exploitation would be contrary to ordre public  or morality (see Art. 27.2
of the TRIPS Agreement);
(b) those which are clearly contrary to human or animal health or could cause serious
prejudice to the environment (see Art. 27.2 of the TRIPS Agreement);
(c) plants and animals, other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes
for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological and microbiologicalprocesses.   New plant varieties will be protected under a special law, a preliminary
draft of which has been submitted to the National Congress.
3. Does your legislation, in accordance with Article 27.1 in combination with Article 31 of
the TRIPS Agreement, consider importation as "working" a patent (and therefore preclude
compulsory licensing, if a product is being imported)?
According to Art. 39 of Law 20-00, working a patent, if granted for a product or a process for
obtaining a product, means providing the domestic market with a reasonable supply in terms of
quantity, quality and price, through production in the country or importation, and if the patent has
been granted for a process different from that indicated, on a commercial scale in the country.
In accordance with this provision, a compulsory licence would not be granted for non-use if
the patent is being worked through importation and the domestic market is being provided with a
reasonable supply in terms of quantity, quality and price.
4. Does your legislation make the granting of a compulsory license subject to all the
conditions enumerated in Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement? Please cite the relevant
provisions of law.
The Dominican legislation deals with the requ irements for granting a compulsory licence in
Arts. 40 to 47 of Law 20-00. These include all the requirements established in the TRIPS, and inparticular:  the refusal of the right holder to grant a licence on reasonable commercial terms and
conditions; prior hearing of the right holder by a representative of the National Industrial Property
Office; the right holder to be paid adequate remuneration; licences to be non-exclusive, non-IP/C/W/285
Page 47
assignable and granted predominantly for the supply of the domestic market; compulsory licences
may be terminated, in whole or in part, by the competent authority, at the request of the right holder.
Compulsory licences may be granted if a potential user has made efforts to obtain a licence
from the patent owner on reasonable commercial terms and conditions and these efforts have not beensuccessful within two hundred and ten (210) days of the corresponding licence being requested.
The National Industrial Property Office will grant a compulsory licence if the interested party
can show that he possesses the technical and economic capacity to undertake the use in question and,
where the patent relates to a raw material from which it is intended to develop a finished product, that
he is able to develop the finished product himself or through third parties in the country, except in
those cases in which production in the national territory is impossible.
In determining what is to be understood by reasonable commercial terms and conditions,
account must be taken of the particular circumstances of each case and the economic value of the
authorization, bearing in mind the average fees for the sector in question established in commercial
licensing agreements between independent parties.
Anyone who is granted a compulsory licence must begin working it within two years of the
licence having been granted.
At the same time, where the patent protects some form of semi-conductor technology,
compulsory licences will be granted only for public non-commercial use, or to remedy a practice
declared to be anti-competitive.
Any compulsory licence may be terminated, in whole or in part, by the competent authority,
at the request of the right holder, if the circumstances which led to it cease to exist and are unlikely torecur, provided that such termination does not adve rsely affect the legitimate interests of the licensee.
Likewise, a compulsory licence may be modified, at  the request of an interested party, where
justified by new facts or circumstances.
5. Does your legislation provide for the principle of the reversal of burden of proof in a
process patent litigation?  Please cite the relevant provisions of law.
In the case of process patents, Law 20-00 establishes a rebuttable legal presumption that
removes the burden of proof from the patent owner and obliges the defendant to disprove that
presumption ( juris tantum ).  Thus, according to Art. 170, for the purposes of civil proceedings, if the
subject matter of a patent is a process for obtaining a new product, the competent court may order adefendant who markets an identical product to prove that the process used to obtain that product is
different from the patented process, the legitimate interests of the defendant in protecting his
manufacturing and business secrets being taken into account.
In the absence of proof to the contrary, any identi cal product produced by a third party, without the
consent of the patent owner, will be presumed to have been obtained by the patented process,
provided that the product obtained by the patented process is new under the terms of the law.
C. P
ROTECTION OF UNDISCLOSED INFORMATION
6. Please explain in detail if your legislation ensures that undisclosed test or other data
submitted by an applicant to the responsib le State agency in the procedure for market
authorization of a pharmaceutical or of an agricultural chemical product is protected against
disclosure and against unfair commercial use by a competitor, for example by prohibiting aIP/C/W/285
Page 48
second applicant from relying on, or from referring to the original data of the first applicant,
when applying subsequently for market authorization for his own product.  Does your
legislation provide for exceptions to this? If yes, under what conditions would such exceptions
apply?  Does your legislation set a specific term of protection for undisclosed test or other data
of the first applicant?
It should be noted that Art. 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement establishes only two specific
obligations, namely, (a)   to protect such data ag ainst unfair commercial use, and (b) to protect such
data against disclosure.  The TRIPS Agreement does not impose any obligation to prevent third
parties obtaining marketing approval for products identical or similar to those previously approved,
nor to prohibit third parties from referring to previous approvals.  Nor does the TRIPS Agreement
provide for the granting of any period of exclusivity in favour of a previous applicant for marketingapproval.
Anyone may request and obtain from the competent authorities a marketing permit for his
own version of a previously approved pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product, provided that
he complies with the requirements of the relevant legislation.  The approval authority may notdiscriminate between earlier and later applicants, bein g required to treat all equally in accordance with
the law.
In order to determine whether the later product meets the legal requirements, the authority
may take internally into account any information at its disposal, whatever its origin.  This use of theinformation is neither commercial nor unfair, and does not involve any disclosure.  Consequently, it is
neither prohibited nor limited by Art. 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement.
The mere fact of requesting a public authority to approve a pharmaceutical or agricultural
chemical product identical to another previously approved by the same authority does not constitute ause of the data held by that authority.  Persons requesting marketing approval for a second product
equivalent to another product previously approved cannot use the data submitted by the first applicant
since they do not have access to them.  As the information is confidential, the health authority may
not communicate such data to the later applicant or allow him access to them.
In accordance with the provisions of Art. 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, Art. 181 of the
Industrial Property Law specifies the following with respect to the protection of undisclosed
information submitted to the authorities to obtain marketing approval:
Art. 181.- Information for marketing approval.(1) Where the procedure before a competent national authority for obtaining approval for
the marketing or sale of a pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product that contains a new
chemical component requires the submission of secr et data or information, these shall be protected
against unfair commercial use by third parties.
(2) The secret data or information referred to in the preceding subparagraph shall be
protected  against disclosure.  The data or information may be disclosed by the competent national
authority where necessary to protect the public, or where adequate steps are taken to protect it against
unfair commercial use by third parties.
The Dominican legislation on unfair competition (which includes the protection of
undisclosed information) does not establish time-limits for the protection of undisclosed information.
The health authority must protect undisclosed data indefinitely against unfair commercial use and
disclosure, on the terms and conditions explained in the preceding paragraphs.  In this respect, at noIP/C/W/285
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time may the health authority allow a third party access to undisclosed data nor may it communicate
or transfer them to a third party for the latter to make commercial use of them.
D. ENFORCEMENT
7. Please indicate remedies provided by your legislation, which constitute effective
deterrents to infringements of intellectual property rights.
Copyright:
Law 65-00 on Copyright and its implementing Regulation No. 362-01 provide for a series of
measures that constitute effective deterrents to infringements of copyright and related rights,
including:
(a) Border measures
Article 185 of Law 65-00 authorizes holders of copyright or related rights, their successors in
title, their contractual representative or the collective rights management society concerned to request
the General Customs Directorate to suspend the clearance of imports or exports which they suspect tobe infringing.  The General Customs Directorate may also order suspension ex officio or at the request
of the corresponding Fiscal Attorney.
(b) Measures to be applied by the National Copyright Office (ONDA)
Article 186 of Law 65-00 and Art.107 of Regulation 362-01 authorize ONDA to oversee and
inspect, ex officio or at the request of a party, activities that might give rise to the enforcement of
copyright or related rights.  Thus, ONDA is empowered by the law and the regulations to take the
following action:
1. Enter freely and without prior notice, whether or not accompanied by a representative
of the Attorney General’s Office and assisted, where appropriate, by the police,
premises on which infringing acts may be being carried out.
2. Request the production of relevant registrations, licences, authorizations or
documents.
3. Order the immediate suspension of any unlawful activity it may detect.4. Retain any unlawful material, as well as equipment used in the unlawful activity and
relevant documents.
5. Record any anomalous situation it may detect.6. File a criminal complaint in connection with a suspected offence.7. Impose, ex officio or at the request of a party, the administrative sanctions falling
within its competence, namely: warnings, fines ranging from 5 to 200 minimumwages, compensation for omissions, temporary (for 30 days) or permanent closure of
the infringing establishment, seizure or confiscation of unlawful copies and
equipment used for committing the unlawful act, destruction of copies unlawfully
reproduced, and publication of the decision at the infringer’s expense.IP/C/W/285
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8. Develop public awareness, education and training programmes in the field of
copyright and related rights.
9. Ordering and carrying out inspections, preventive or precautionary measures,
including for the purpose of collecting evidence, whether at the request of a party orex officio.
10. Maintain a register of importers, distributors and suppliers of goods, services and
equipment connected with copyright or relate d rights.  Registrations must be renewed
annually and apply to: video clubs and shops, importers and distributors of
audiovisual recordings, phonograms, computers, copies of works expressed in
graphic form, art galleries, importers and manufacturers of media intended for thefixation or reproduction of protected works and phonograms, stations for
retransmission by cable, optical fibre or other similar process, and any other natural
or juridical person engaged in the marketing of goods or equipment connected with
copyright or related rights, as determined by ONDA on the basis of a reasoned
decision.
(c) Judicial measures
Law 65-00 provides for a series of measures that can be taken by the criminal or civil courts
and also constitute an effective means of deterring infringements of copyright and related rights.
• Criminal proceedings
Under Art. 173 of the Law, any unlawful reproduction and materials and equipment used in
the unlawful act may be seized or confiscated and awarded in the sentence to the right holder whose
rights were infringed, or their destruction may be ordered, without prejudice to any civil action for
damages which the right holder may be entitled to bring against the infringer.
Even before the initiation of criminal proceedings or at any stage of the proceedings once
initiated, the court may order that the unlawful mate rials and the equipment used in the unlawful act,
as well as business documents connected with the commission of the offence, be provisionally seized
without notifying or hearing the other party, and the relevant Fiscal Attorney may carry out, evenbefore the initiation of criminal proceedings, any investigation or expert examination he considers
necessary to determine the existence of infringing materials.
The court will impose penalties of imprisonment for between 3 months and 3 years and fines
ranging from 50 to 1,000 minimum wages, without prejudice to any civil damages that may be
awarded, where it is proved that the work has been put to any form of unauthorized use, and fines
ranging from 10 to 50 minimum wages, if it is proved that a defendant authorized to use a work hasnot complied with his legal or contractual obligations (Arts. 169 and 170).
The fines imposed may be increased to up to three times the amount of the material damage
caused if the illegal act has seriously jeopardized the livelihood of its victim, and if insolvent the
infringer will be liable to one day’s imprisonment for each peso left unpaid, with a maximum of two
years (Art. 172).
• Civil proceedings
Even before the civil action has been brought or during the proceedings, at the request of the
right holder, his successors in title or their representative, the competent court may issue a warrantIP/C/W/285
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ordering the judicial inspection of any premises on which acts in violation of the law or its regulations
are presumed to be taking place, as well as the attachment or sequestration of the unlawful copies, the
equipment used for committing the unlawful acts, the proceeds of the distribution of the unlawful
copies, the income earned from acts of unauthorized communication to the public and devices used to
circumvent systems designed to prevent the making of unlawful copies, provided that there is goodreason to fear the infringement of the rights or that some or all of the materials used to commit the
unlawful act could disappear, in accordance with the provisions of Arts. 179 and 180 of Law 65-00.
The aggrieved party may also request the immediate suspension of the unlawful activity and
especially the reproduction, distribution, communication to the public or unlawful importation, as
appropriate.
Under Art. 183 of the Law, in the final judgement establishing the existence of an
infringement, the court may order that the unlawful copies and the implements used to reproduce
them be destroyed or handed over to the plaintiff and that the operative part of the judgement be
published, at the expense of the losing party, in one or more national newspapers.
It should be noted that Art. 184 of the Law releases the non-resident foreign plaintiff from the
obligation to provide judicatum solvi  security.
Industrial property
The Dominican legislation contains a range of provisions for preventing infringements of
industrial property rights:
(a) Administrative proceedings
Article 154 of Law 20-00 provides for the following expeditious proceedings before the
National Industrial Property Office.
Proceedings before the National Industrial Property Office shall be conducted in accordance
with the following rules:
• Complaints shall be made, in writing, to the head of the relevant department, who
shall rule thereon with the assistance of  two examiners from his own department.
• The head of the relevant department shall, within ten (10) days of the date of receipt,
notify the complaint to the right holder, who shall have thirty (30) days from the dateof notification within which to respond, and to all those entered in the register and
anyone having any registered right relating to the industrial property right forming the
subject of the complaint.
• The initiator of the proceedings shall be notified of the right holder’s response within
ten (10) days of receipt in order that he may exercise his right of reply within thirty(30) days of receipt of the notification.  The head of the relevant department shall
issue a duly reasoned resolution within two (2) months of the expiration of the final
time-limit accorded to the parties.
(b) Judicial proceedings
These are described in Arts. 166 and 167 of Law 20-00.IP/C/W/285
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• Criminal proceedings
In criminal proceedings the penalties are: correctional imprisonment for between three
months and two years and a fine ranging fr om ten to fifty minimum wages, or both.
The action for the imposition of these penalties must be initiated by the right holder; the rules
of ordinary criminal law are residually applicable, always provided that they do not conflict the
provisions of Law 20-00, and the non-resident foreign plaintiff will not be obliged to provide
judicatum solvi  security.
Liability for the acts extends to persons who order them or arrange for them to be carried out,
the legal representatives of corporate entities and all those who, knowing the act to be unlawful, take
part in, facilitate or conceal it.
• Civil proceedings:
The civil procedures are described in Art. 168 and the provisional measures in Arts. 173, 174
and 175 of Law 20-00:
In an action for infringement of rights protected under this law one or more of the following
measures may be requested:
Cessation of the infringing acts; indemnification for damage suffered; seizure of the products
of the infringement, of any advertising material referring to those products and of means usedexclusively for committing the infrin gement; transfer of ownership of the products and means referred
to above; the measures necessary to prevent the continuation or repetition of the infringement,
including destruction of the means seized, if indispensable.
As far as provisional measures are concerned, Law 20-00 stipulates that they may be
requested before, after or concurrently with the initiation of an action for infringement.  If the
measures are ordered before the action is initiated, they shall be rendered null and void if an action is
not brought within ten (10) days of the order being issued.
The competent court may order as provisional measures those which are appropriate to ensure
the enforcement of the judgement handed down in the corresponding proceedings.  These may
include:
The immediate cessation of the alleged acts and the preventive seizure of the articles forming
the subject of the infringement and of means intended exclusively for committing the
infringement.  In such cases the competent court shall order the plaintiff to provide security or
equivalent assurance sufficient to indemnify the defendant for any damage he may havesuffered as a result of the complaint, should the final decision go against the plaintiff.
At the same time, if the holder of a trademark right has good reason to suspect that goods are
about to be imported under conditions such that his rights would be impaired, he may request the
court to order the Republic’s customs authorities to suspend, as a precautionary measure, the releaseof the said goods into free circulation or their exploitation, as the case may be.
The court will only accept the request and adopt measures if the petitioner supplies, together
with the request and in writing, a sufficiently detailed description of the goods to make them readily
recognizable by the customs authorities.IP/C/W/285
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Under Art. 175, in computing damages the following criteria may be taken into account: the
profits that would presumably have accrued to the right holder in the absence of competition from the
infringer; the profits earned by the infringer as a result of the infringing acts; the price that the
infringer would have paid the right holder for a contractual licence, with due regard for the
commercial value of the subject matter of the right infringed and the contractual licences alreadygranted.
8. Please describe any new initiatives that are planned to improve enforcement of
intellectual property rights in your country, particularly initiatives related to criminal
enforcement.
Our legislation includes several new initiatives, absent from the previous legislation, which
have proved very effective for enforcing intellectual property rights.  Most of these are explained in
the response to the previous question.
In practice, the powers granted to the National Copyright Office (ONDA) to supervise
activities that could give rise to the exercise of copyright or related rights have been particularlyuseful for monitoring the enforcement of intellectual property rights.  These allow ONDA inspectors
freely to enter premises on which such rights are suspected of being infringed, question the staff,
demand documents, and seize any unlawful material they may find, as well as equipment used in the
unlawful activity, etc., without the need to be accompanied by a representative of the Attorney
General’s Office.
These powers have led to greater control over infringing acts, and in the first three months
following the promulgation of Law 65-00 ONDA carried out more inspections and seizure operations
than it had since its establishment.
At the same time, on the basis of the powers which the law gives ONDA to supervise
activities that could give rise to the exercise of copyright or related rights, Art. 109 of implementing
Regulation No. 362-01 introduced the registration of importers, distributors and suppliers of goods
and services or equipment connected with copyright or related rights.  These registrations have to be
renewed annually, which has enabled the administrative authorities to monitor such activities more
closely, familiarize themselves with the places where the importers, distributors and suppliers of
copyright-related goods are located, and ensure that there are no infringements.
An extensive explanation of the initiatives relating to criminal proceedings was given in the
response to Question 7 of the questionnaire.
At the same time, by Decree 363-01, the government established the National Commission
for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, which is responsible for coordinating the efforts of
the various State bodies for the protection of intellectual property rights.  The members of this
Commission include the Ministry of Industry and Tr ade, the Ministry of External Relations, the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, the Dominican
Telecommunications Institute, the Dominican Institute of Technology, the National Copyright Office,the National Industrial Property Office, the Office of  the Attorney General of the Republic, and other
official institutions.
At the recommendation of this Commission, a De partment for the Protection of Intellectual
Property, with national jurisdiction, was set up in the Office of the Attorney General of the Republicto coordinate with the Fiscal Attorneys of the country’s various judicial departments operations to
supervise the enforcement of Laws 20-00 and 65-00 and to promote public action against infringers of
intellectual property rights.  The staff of this department receive special training in the field ofIP/C/W/285
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intellectual property and regularly collaborate with the administrative authorities responsible for
planning government policy in this area.
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