Licensing in the Eastern Bloc

This article will discuss the legal problems faced by American enterprises desiring to license industrial property rights--principally patents, trademarks and know-how--in Eastern Europe. Licensing in seven countries--the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and Bulgaria--will be examined. Of course, these countries form separate and independent legal and political jurisdictions; and even their cultural backgrounds differ. Any generalization about them must be taken in that context.

Nonetheless, each of these countries is governed by similar political and economic principles--in particular, the principle of centralized economic planning. These common factors are reflected in common problems faced by Western licensors, and their attorneys, in dealing with their counterparts in each of the countries in the Eastern bloc.