HAITI Law and Practice Contributed by: Vanessa Abdel-Razak, Ludsen Saint-Phar and Webster Registre, Cabinet Abdel-Razak & Associés
12. Additional Considerations 12.1 Emerging Issues
goods temporarily while the rights holder initiates civil or criminal proceedings within the prescribed time - frame. Parallel imports are not specifically regulated through a detailed statutory regime, and seizures in such cases are generally limited to situations involving counterfeiting, deception or other unlawful conduct rather than the mere importation of genuine goods placed on the market with the rights holder’s consent.
There are no major recent legislative reforms or land - mark judicial decisions in trade mark or copyright law that would significantly alter the existing legal framework, but several emerging issues are draw - ing increasing attention in practice. These include the digitalisation of commerce, online infringement, enforcement challenges at the border, and the practi - cal impact of delays and resource constraints within administrative and judicial institutions. Courts contin - ue to apply traditional intellectual property principles to new commercial realities, often relying on general civil law concepts such as good faith, fault and unfair competition. With respect to artificial intelligence, Haitian law does not yet contain specific statutory provisions address - ing generative AI, authorship of AI-generated works or AI-specific trade mark issues. In practice, ownership of generative AI outputs is assessed under existing copyright principles, which generally require human authorship; purely autonomous AI-generated content is therefore unlikely to qualify for copyright protec - tion in the absence of sufficient human creative input. Questions of infringement involving AI, such as the use of protected works in training datasets or the generation of outputs that resemble existing works, have not yet been the subject of reported Haitian court decisions. As a result, practitioners and courts look to general copyright concepts and may consider per - suasive authority from other jurisdictions, international treaties and comparative law when confronted with such issues, although foreign decisions are not bind - ing and are used primarily for guidance rather than direct application. 12.2 Trade Mark and Copyright Use on the Internet There are no specific statutory rules governing trade mark or copyright enforcement on the internet, such as formal notice-and-takedown or safe-harbour regimes. Online infringement is addressed under general trade mark, copyright, unfair competition and civil liability principles, and service provider liability is assessed case by case.
11. Appeal 11.1 Appellate Procedure
Decisions in trade mark or copyright infringement cas - es may be appealed in accordance with ordinary civil procedure rules. Judgments rendered at first instance by the competent civil court may be appealed to the Court of Appeal with territorial jurisdiction. The appeal typically reviews issues of law and, to a certain extent, fact, based on the record and the parties’ submissions. Appeals must be filed within the statutory time lim - its prescribed by civil procedure, usually calculated from formal service of the judgment. Further appeal on points of law may be available before the Cour de Cassation, which reviews only legal issues and does not re-examine the facts. Copyright infringement deci - sions follow the same appellate path as trade mark infringement cases and are appealed to the ordinary civil appellate courts, as there is no specialised intel - lectual property appeal body in Haiti. 11.2 Timeframes for Appealing Trial Court Decisions An appeal from a trial court decision may be brought once the judgment is final at first instance and has been formally served on the parties. The appeal must be filed within the statutory time limit set by civil pro - cedure, which is calculated from the date of service of the judgment. The duration of an appeal varies depending on the court’s docket and the complexity of the case, but appeals before the Court of Appeal typically take between 12 and 24 months to be decided. Further review before the Cour de Cassation, limited to points of law, may extend the overall timeline by an additional one to two to four years.
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