The key facts

  • The court fined four citizens for selling illegal Cambridge University Press textbooks.
  • The cases were opened under Article 177-1 of the Administrative Liability Code for copyright infringement on marketplaces.
  • Fines for citizens range from 2.2 to 6.6 million soums, and the counterfeit products were confiscated.

Fines for selling illegal Cambridge textbooks

In Uzbekistan The court issued rulings on four cases involving the sale of counterfeit textbooks of English published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. The Ministry of Justice opened the cases after reports about sellers on marketplaces offering illegal copies of five popular titles: IELTS 20 Academic, Mindset for IELTS, Complete IELTS, Essential Grammar in Use and English Grammar in Use. Inspections carried out by the Intellectual Property Center confirmed that citizens Y.Kh., M.A., N.D. and Sh.Sh. were distributing these books without the permission of the copyright holder.

Legal consequences and the size of the fines

Based on the identified violations, protocols were drawn up under Article 177-1 of the Code of Administrative Liability, which concerns violations of copyright and related rights. The court applied fines to the offenders under the first part of this article, but the exact amounts of the penalties were not disclosed. Under the law, unlawful use of works and distribution of their counterfeit copies entails fines for citizens of 5 to 15 basic calculation units (from 2.2 to 6.6 million soums), and for officials — from 15 to 30 basic calculation units. In addition, all counterfeit copies and materials used for their distribution are subject to confiscation.