The intellectual property rights are private rights and the state’s involvement in setting charges must be minimal, the head of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) Eugeniu Rusu stated in IPN’s public debate “Romania-Republic of Moldova, strengthening partnership in the field of intellectual property”. According to him, the institution is now adapting the legislation on copyright and related rights to the European directives and is inspired in this regard by the Romanian experience.

The head of AGEPI said that Romania’s experience in the field of copyright and related rights is extremely important, as there are lasting partnerships between the two institutions based in Chisinau and Bucharest, which are responsible for this field and there are sustainable partnerships.

“The partnership with Romania is a brotherly one. We have very good cooperation with our counterparts in Romania. When I was hired in 2015, my first exchange of experience was at the Romanian Copyright Office (ORDA). The colleagues from ORDA explained to me how the collective management system works, what copyright is and many other aspects. In the recent years, we signed memoranda of understanding, with concrete action plans. These plans aim to exchange experience between our colleagues so that we correctly transpose the European Union directives in the field of copyright and related rights. After the explanatory screening we had in Brussels, in the first part of the day only aspects of industrial property were analyzed, and the next day copyright and related rights were analyzed. Industrial property is much easier to understand because it is concrete and can be applied directly, while in the case of copyright the aspects are easily interpretable,” stated Eugeniu Rusu.

The AGEPI director said that in order to popularize the field of intellectual property among young people, various thematic competitions are organized. The goal is for the people to understand the importance of intellectual property and creators of works to be able to capitalize on them in exchange for remuneration.

“In partnership with ORDA, we stage a contest intended for young people. It was started in 2017. The contest offers students the opportunity, starting from the eighth grade to the twelfth grade, to create communications on different topics. As a rule, the theme offered by the World Intellectual Property Organization is developed. Based on the evaluation of the works, three winners are designated. About 50 students participated in the last competition. Students from both the Republic of Moldova and Romania can participate in the competition,” said the head of the State Agency on Intellectual Property.

Eugeniu Rusu noted that the legislation has recently been amended so that collective management organizations make their activity transparent. Following the adoption of the new law, a maximum ceiling of the commission that can be charged by collective management organizations was set – at most 30%.

“The collective management organizations are obliged to publish all the collected remunerations and the charged commission. In addition, it was stipulated how all the rights can be applied: mandatorily, extendedly or optionally. Last but not least, sanctions were set - both administrative, and contravention and criminal sanctions in the collective management system. This law regulated the procedure for negotiating charges. The intellectual property rights are private rights and the state’s involvement in the protection, charge setting activities must be as minimal as possible. We decided that the parties, the collective management organizations, on the one hand, and the negotiators, on the other hand, should negotiate both the charges and the collection of funds. We have always tried to raise awareness of the observance of the intellectual property rights,” said the AGEPI director.

The public debate entitled “Romania-Republic of Moldova, strengthening partnership in the field of intellectual property” was the eighth installment of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, which is funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova. The content of this debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.