Uzbekistan court awards compensation in copyright case

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — An American translator and orientalist, Mark Reese, has won a court ruling in Uzbekistan awarding compensation for copyright infringement. The Uzbek State University of World Languages has been ordered to pay him 20.6 million Uzbek soums.

The court established that an unauthorized English translation of the novel “Days Gone By” was distributed without the consent of the rights holder, and ruled in favor of the claimant after reviewing the evidence and circumstances of the case.

In April 2026, Reese filed a civil claim with the Uchtepa Interdistrict Civil Court seeking compensation for damages related to the alleged violation of his copyright. During the proceedings, it was found that an electronic version of the translated work had been distributed without permission over a prolonged period.

According to the Ministry of Justice, a prior inspection had identified the violation, after which an administrative report was drawn up against the responsible university employee and the materials were forwarded to court. The employee had previously been fined 2.6 million soums, and the illegally posted copy of the work was removed from the unilibrary.uz system.

The court confirmed the claimant’s right to compensation under legislation that provides for payments ranging from 20 to 1,000 sizes of basic estimated value for copyright violations.