2. Each Party shall ensure that its procedures for the enforcement of intellectual property rights are fair and equitable, are not unnecessarily complicated or costly, and do not entail unreasonable time-limits or unwarranted delays.
3. Each Party shall provide that decisions on the merits of a case in judicial and administrative enforcement proceedings shall:
(a) preferably be in writing and preferably state the
reasons on which the decisions are based;
(b) be made available at least to the parties in a
proceeding without undue delay; and
(c) be based only on evidence in respect of which such
parties were offered the opportunity to be heard.
4. Each Party shall ensure that parties in a proceeding have an opportunity to have final administrative decisions reviewed by a judicial authority of that Party and, subject to jurisdictional provisions in its domestic laws concerning the importance of a case, to have reviewed at least the legal aspects of initial judicial decisions on the merits of a case. Notwithstanding the above, no Party shall be required to provide for judicial review of acquittals in criminal cases.
5. Nothing in this Article and in Articles 1715 through 1718 shall require a Party to establish a judicial system for the enforcement of intellectual property rights distinct from that Party's system for the enforcement of laws in general.
6. For the purposes of Articles 1715 through 1718, the term "right holder" includes federations and associations having legal standing to assert such rights.
Article 1715: Specific Procedural and Remedial Aspects of Civil and Administrative Procedures
1. Each Party shall make available to right holders civil judicial procedures for the enforcement of any intellectual property right covered by this Chapter. Each Party shall provide that: