Intellectual property in Estonia

Intellectual Property

National Organisations: The patents office of Estonia was created on 3rd December 1991. It started functioning in 1992. Among its activities were included the implementation of laws concerning trademarks of manufactured products or business trademarks, the law concerning the copyrights of authors, laws concerning patents and finally the laws concerning utility models.
The principle of priority to the first patent applicant is applied.
Estonia is a member of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) since 1994, and is also a member of Paris and Berne Conventions.
Regional Organisations: Estonia has signed several regional conventions on intellectual property. For instance, the Paris and Berne Conventions, Rome convention as well as the Madrid protocol.

Type of property and law	Validity	International Agreements Signed
Patent Patent Act, March 16, 1994	20 years
Trademark Trade Marks Act, August 1992 (last amended December 1997)	10 years (renewable)	Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks
Design Industrial Design Protection Act, November 18, 1997 (last amended November 25, 1998)	5 years, renewable for two further 5-year periods
Copyright Copyright Act, November 1992, (last amended February 1999)	The term of protection is the life of the author and seventy years after his or her death irrespective of the date in which work is lawfully made available to the public	WIPO Copyright Treaty
Industrial Models Industrial Design Protection Act, November 1997 (last amended in 1998)	5 years from the date in which the application has been duly filled in.

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