As of 1 April 2021, the Estonian Patent Office performs certain practical tasks in the field of copyright and related rights.
These tasks are as follows:
1. To fulfil the role of mediator for the status of orphan works in Estonia, i.e. to act as the competent authority under Article 3(5) of Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council.
The competent authority essentially has two tasks. Upon receiving information about a work recognised as an orphan work from a public memory institution or the Estonian Public Broadcasting, the competent authority transmits this information to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) database. However, if it is later confirmed that the rights to a work or phonogram recognised as an orphan work belong to a rights holder, the competent authority transmits this information to the orphan works database maintained by EUIPO.
In 2025, Estonia did not register any orphan works in the EUIPO database.
2. To exercise national supervision over the activities of collective management organisations (CMOs), ensuring compliance with the requirements set out in Chapter IX of the Copyright Act.
Chapter IX of the Copyright Act regulates the collective exercise of rights, and subchapter 3 of the chapter includes provisions for state supervision over the activities of CMOs. Chapter IX of the Copyright Act also specifies the requirements for CMOs and their activities. Among other things, the use of the revenue from exercising rights and distribution of the revenue between the holders of the rights, the terms and conditions for concluding contracts with users (including the establishment of reasonable tariffs), and providing information from CMOs to the holders of rights, as well as to users and to the general public on the exercise of these rights (including the submission of a transparency report and the disclosure of information on a website) are regulated. Most of the requirements the compliance with which is subject to state supervision arise from Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council.
In January 2025, the Estonian Patent Office conducted monitoring on the websites of CMOs (the Baltic Press Publishers’ CMO and the Estonian Actors’ Union) on the basis of Sections 7915 and 7926 of the Copyright Act. The Patent Office verified whether the CMOs have disclosed and kept up-to-date the following information:
1) the statute of the organisation and documents approved on the basis of the statute with information arising from section 791 (1) and subsections 792 (1) and (2) of the Copyright Act;
2) standard licence agreements and applicable standard tariffs, including discounts;
3) details of the members of the management board;
4) general policy on distribution of amounts due to rightsholders;
5) general policy on determination of management fees;
6) general policy on deductions, other than in respect of management fees, from rights revenue or from any income arising from the investment of rights revenue;
7) a list of representation agreements it has entered into, and the names of the collective management organisations with which those representation agreements have been concluded;
8) general policy on the use of non-distributable sums;
9) complaint submission and dispute resolution procedures available as specified in subsections 871 (2)-(4) of the Copyright Act and other acts ;
10) a transparency report prepared on the basis of section 7916 (1) of the Copyright Act and approved by the general meeting.
The Patent Office identified some shortcomings in the disclosure or keeping up-to-date of this information and sent e-mails to the CMOs about these deficiencies. The Patent Office did not receive any complaints about the activities of the CMOs, therefore no state supervision was carried out.
3. Organise the work of the Copyright Committee.
The Copyright Committee was formed within the Estonian Patent Office on 1 April 2021. The Commission is a conciliation body within the meaning of § 19 of the Conciliation Act and carries out the tasks listed in clauses 87 (1) 1)–5) of the Copyright Act, for example, resolving disputes related to copyright and other related rights by conciliation of the parties.
In 2025, the Copyright Committee received three requests, with proceedings initiated twice.
The Copyright Committee has its own procedural rules in 2024, established by the Director General of the Patent Office with directive No. 1-1/24-26-O of 9 August 2024.
In 2025, we provided 105 copyright-related consultations, of which 56 were in writing and 49 were oral. We organised three copyright seminars, which were attended by a total of 339 participants. The seminars focused on content created by artificial intelligence and its relationship to copyright.
The Estonian Patent Office represented Estonia in the Copyright Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as well as in the EUIPO Observatory working group.
In 2025, a special issue of Juridica on intellectual property, to which the Estonian Patent Office contributed, was published.
Finally, in 2025, Estonia became the coordinator of the WIPO Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic States (CEBS) regional group for the first time. Estonia had not previously held this role during its 30 years of membership (one of a few).
The role of coordinator provided greater visibility at the international level in discussions on intellectual property issues, adding prestige and visibility to Estonia.
WIPO’s substantive work is organised through regional groups, of which there are seven (7) in total. The coordinator shapes and consolidates the group’s position on global intellectual property and innovation policy issues, which makes the coordinator’s role complex and significant. The CEBS regional group comprises 19 countries: Albania (AL), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria (BG), Georgia (GE), Estonia (EE), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), North Macedonia (MK), Moldova (MD), Poland (PL), Romania (RO), Serbia (RS), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SL), Hungary (HU), Ukraine (UA), Croatia (HR), the Czech Republic (CZ), and Montenegro (ME).
The coordinator speaks on behalf of the group, prepares and communicates positions agreed upon by the group’s member states, and facilitates communication between the WIPO Secretariat and other regional groups. Within the group, the coordinator is tasked with reconciling differing views in the event of disagreements, proposing compromises, including on politically sensitive issues. The Estonian Patent Office contributed to supporting the CEBS coordinator by drafting statements on the substantive topics of all standing committees.
The next CEBS coordinator will be Albania. Estonia will assume the role of coordinator again in 2043–2044.
