Pavlov & Co

Mariana Lazarova is a Bulgarian lawyer with over 30 years practice in the field of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights.

She started her professional career in 1982 as legal adviser at the Bulgarian State Copyright Agency  (JUSAUTOR). When the Agency terminated its activities in 1993 under the newly adopted Copyright Act Mariana devoted her competences to the establishment of the first Bulgarian copyright society MUSICAUTOR and to the enforcement of collective management of authors‘ rights as its Managing Director, which position she held till the end of 2000. Her partiality for the protection of intellectual property rights together with her enriching expertise led her successively to the positions of Executive Director of the Bulgarian Association of the Music Producers (BAMP) - the organization for protection of the rights of phonogram producers and fight against piracy, National Group of IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) and Executive Director of COPY-BG – the society for collection of the compensatory remuneration due to authors, perfomers and producers for the copying of their works, perfomnaces and records for private use.

Mariana formed part of all groups of experts working on the amendments to the Bulgarian Copyright Act in the process of its harmonization with the EU legislation in the field of copyright and the implementation of the respective EC Directives, the TRIPS Agreement and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaties (WCT and WPPT). In 2016 she joined the working group for preparing of Act for Collective Rights Managment Organisations which by the end of the day was not adopted by the parliament. She has been invited as lecturer and reporter on the development of the national copyright legislation and enforcement as well as on various copyright issues to numerous national and international seminars, training courses, workshops and other venues organized and held by the EC within the framework of the PHARE Program-Intellectual Property Protection, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), the International Federation of Phonoghraphic Industry (IFPI), the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) based in Wasington, the Ministry of Culture, different NGOs.

Mariana is the author of a number of articles on different aspects of copyright and neighbouring rights, published in specialized editions and in the press. Due to her vast experience and expertise she is recognized as one of the leading experts in copyright and neighbouring rights in Bulgaria.