03.09.2025

As of November 10, 2025, Uzbekistan will implement legislative amendments aimed at strengthening measures for the effective protection of intellectual property rights holders.

The Criminal Code is supplemented with a provision establishing criminal liability for the unlawful use of trademarks, trade names, geographical indications, and appellations of origin.

Currently, such violations are subject only to administrative liability.

Specifically:

  • Misappropriation of authorship of a literary or artistic work, invention, utility model, industrial design, plant variety, or layout-design of an integrated circuit; coercion into co-authorship; as well as the unauthorized disclosure of information concerning such intellectual property objects prior to their official publication shall be punishable by a fine of 50 to 70 basic calculation units (BCUs) (USD 1,700–2,300), or by up to 360 hours of compulsory community service, or by restriction of liberty for up to 2 years.
  • Unlawful use of works or related rights objects, including reproduction, distribution, public communication of counterfeit copies of works or related rights objects, manufacture of copies with false information concerning their producers, place of manufacture, or copyright/related rights holders, where such actions result in damage, shall be punishable by a fine of 50 to 100 BCUs (USD 1,700–3,300), or by up to 2 years of corrective labor, or by restriction of liberty for up to 2 years, or by imprisonment for up to 2 years.
  • Unlawful use of another’s trademark, geographical indication, appellation of origin of goods, or confusingly similar designation in relation to homogeneous goods (services), or unlawful use of another’s trade name, as well as the use of an unregistered trademark in Uzbekistan that results in substantial damage, shall be punishable by a fine of 50 to 100 BCUs, or by restriction of liberty for up to 2 years, or by imprisonment for up to 2 years.
  • Unlawful manufacture, application, importation, offering for sale, sale, circulation, or storage for sale of a patented invention, utility model, industrial design, or product obtained through a patented method, as well as the direct use of a patented method, or circulation of products incorporating a protected layout-design of an integrated circuit without authorization, as well as the unauthorized use, reproduction, breeding, offering for sale, or circulation of protected plant varieties or breeding achievements resulting in significant damage, shall be punishable by a fine of 50 to 75 BCUs (USD 1,700–2,500), or by imprisonment for up to 5 years, or by up to 360 hours of compulsory community service, or by restriction of liberty for up to 2 years.

At the same time, a new mechanism of exemption from liability is introduced: if the offense is committed for the first time and the damage is fully compensated within 30 days from the date of detection, the offender shall be released from criminal liability.