Título X. Disposiciones transitorias y finales

The provisions of this law shall apply to existing national works that have not fallen into the public domain upon expiration of the term of protection provided for in Decree Number 1037 of the Congress of the Republic.

As for the protection of existing foreign works, they shall be protected only if, under the law of their country of origin, they have not fallen into the public domain upon expiration of the term of protection, even if it is shorter than the term of protection provided for in Guatemalan legislation.

The Ministry of Economy shall transform the current Industrial Property Register into the Intellectual Property Register. Until the Intellectual Property Register is established, the functions assigned by this law to said Register shall be performed by the Industrial Property Register.

The regulation for this law shall be issued within a time limit of not more than 120 days, counted from the date of entry into force of this Decree.

Within a time limit not exceeding one year from the entry into force of this law, the Prosecutor General of the Republic shall create and organize a Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Intellectual Property, which shall be in charge of exercising the public criminal action in the case of the crimes defined in matters of Intellectual Property. Until said special Prosecutor's Office is created and organized, the currently established prosecutor's offices shall have jurisdiction over said crimes.

Civil judicial actions, in matters under this law, that were initiated prior to the entry into force of this Decree shall continue until their decision in accordance with the provisions under which they were initiated.

Decree number 1037 of the Congress of the Republic, dated February 8, 1954, Law on Copyright in Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works; Chapter VII of Book IV of Decree Number 2-70 of the Congress of the Republic, Commercial Code; and subparagraphs a), d), e) and f) of numeral 3 of Article 24-QUATER of Decree 51-92 of the Congress of the Republic, Code of Criminal Procedure, added by Article 4 of Decree 79-97 of the Congress of the Republic, are repealed.

This Decree shall enter into force thirty days after its publication in the official gazette.