As part of its cooperation with the Law Academy at the Office of the Public Prosecutor General in the Republic of Kazakhstan, IRZ organised an online seminar on money laundering on 18 November 2020.
In the context of international collaboration, cooperation between different countries is absolutely essential when it comes to controlling financial transactions with a terrorist and/or criminal background. There was therefore a requirement for an intensive exchange of experiences in order to develop the appropriate strategies to combat money laundering.
As its German expert, IRZ was able to attract Senior Public Prosecutor Thomas Junge from the Berlin Office of the Public Prosecutor General. Thomas Junge gave a lecture on “Fighting organised crime – money laundering”, in which he talked about subjects including:
The purpose and objectives of money laundering
The three steps in the money laundering process: placement, layering and integration
The legal framework in Germany, the EU and on an international level in the fight against money laundering
International authorities and international cooperation or legal aid in this area
Difficulties in the prosecution of offences
The participants followed the explanations provided by Senior Public Prosecutor Junge with a great deal of interest and asked plenty of questions. After the lecture, there were lively discussions and a reciprocal exchange of ideas. The seminar was a great success, which means that IRZ and the Law Academy will also organise and support other formats on this kind of subjects in future.
IRZ expert, lawyer Markus Scheufele, during his lecture (screenshot) Kazakhstan
On 15 and 16 October 2020, IRZ organised an online seminar on the collective management of copyright and related property rights, alongside the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Ministry of Justice for the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Around ninety participants from the business community, the Ministry of Justice for Kazakhstan and international copyright collectives discussed topics including:
Efficiency and transparency in managing copyright and related property rights in connection with WIPO practices and the EU Directive on the collective management of these rights
Specific features of the collective management of copyright in various fields and the experiences of international copyright collectives.
Pricing policies of copyright collectives from the perspective of the EU
The practice of assigning rights and the related challenges involved in various aspects of the collective management of copyright
IRZ was able to recruit lawyer Markus Scheufele as an expert in copyright issues. In his lecture on “Fair compensation for private copies in Germany and the EU – legal and historic background, fees and charges and their implementation”, Scheufele outlined German copyright law, which was changed as a result of a 2001 EU directive on copyright law in the information society. He explained the Padawan judgement delivered by the ECJ in 2010 on basic issues concerning the private copying levy and the EGEDA judgement passed by the ECJ in 2016. At the time, the court affirmed its Padawan ruling, according to which companies cannot be charged with private copying levies. To conclude his lecture, Markus Scheufele presented the German fee policy in this context.
The two-day seminar was met with a great deal of interest from the participants, and so IRZ wants to continue supporting other opportunities for cooperation on copyright issues in the future.
Patent attorney, European patent attorney and European trademark and design attorney Manuel Soria Parra during his online lecture on the Hague Design Agreement Kazakhstan
On 17 September 2020, IRZ, together with the Ministry of Justice for the Republic of Kazakhstan and the World Intellectual Property Organization, organised an online seminar on the Hague agreement for the international registration of industrial designs and models. Around 85 representatives from the following institutions took part in the conference:
Ministry of Justice for the Republic of Kazakhstan,
Regional Ministries of Justice in the Republic of Kazakhstan,
National Institute of Intellectual Property,
“Atameken”, the national representation of businesses in Kazakhstan and
Patent attorneys in Kazakhstan.
The Hague Design Agreement is a system allowing the international registration of industrial designs and models, which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. The agreement, which covers the Hague Act of 1960 and the Geneva Act of 1999 with each of their different legal provisions, provides protection for owners of industrial designs or models through international registration with the WIPO.
Representing IRZ as an expert, Manuel Soria Parra gave a lecture on “Protecting Designs in Germany and Europe”. Manuel Soria Parra is a patent attorney, European patent attorney and a European trademark and design attorney at the firm Meissner Bolte Patentanwälte Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB. His lecture included a comparison between the protection of registered Community designs with those that have not been registered, outlining the main differences between them.
Since Kazakhstan is currently working on draft legislation covering the protection of unregistered designs and models, the participants from the Ministry of Justice for Kazakhstan found the expertise provided by Manuel Soria Parra particularly interesting and useful.
IRZ will be happy to continue supporting discussions between German experts and the Ministry of Justice for Kazakhstan on this and other similar topics in future.
