Belarus Needs Access to Foreign IPLukashenko’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to new sanctions being imposed by the U.S., EU, UK, and other countries.Adopted by the House of Representatives (lower house) on December 20, 2022, and the Council of the Republic (upper house) a day later, Lukashenko signed its provisions into law on January 3, 2023.Those Who Use Unlicensed Content Must Pay For ItThe new law – which effectively disposes of exclusive rights for those affected – states that when people/entities make use of unlicensed/pirated content, remuneration must be paid directly to bank accounts operated by the state-owned National Patent Authority.Depriving rightsholders of all rights except the right to get paid might sound like a “better than nothing” deal, but that assumes foreign rightsholders will actually get paid.Parallel ImportsAnother feature of the new law relates to unlicensed parallel imports “to create conditions for increasing the internal stability of the economy” and “preventing or reducing a critical shortage in the domestic market of food and other products.”When these parallel imports contain or include items covered by intellectual property law, permission from rightsholders will not be required."