Ukraine News Archives
July 21, 2010
Ukraine and WIPO Sign Cooperation Program for 2010-2012
On June 30, 2010 in Kyiv, the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko and Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Francis Gurry signed a cooperation agreement identifying new areas for collaboration in the 2010-2012 period.
The cooperation program aims to improve the Ukrainian intellectual property protection system. WIPO experts are planning to hold various seminars aimed at harmonizing Ukrainian and international legislation and training Ukrainian law enforcement authorities, particularly judges, in the area of IPR protection.
Semynozhenko noted that Ukraine’s cooperation with the WIPO is ongoing for eight years now, during which time Ukraine improved its system of IPR protection. He noted that Ukraine is currently ranked 108th in the world in terms of the IP protection and expressed hopes that the fulfillment of the program’s measures will result in a higher ranking.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Ukrainian radio’s website, WIPO
June 23, 2010
Software Piracy Rates Increasing in Ukraine
According to the data recently presented by the analytical company IDC, the rate of unlicensed software use in Ukraine increased by 1 percent last year, reaching the 85 percent mark, while the piracy losses reached USD 272,000,000 (EUR 220,000,000) in 2009.
As the increasing software piracy rates have adverse effects on the technological and economical development of the country and its investment attractiveness, the government has made promises to the international community to actively combat piracy and severely punish the companies offering unlicensed products to their clients.
The deputy chief of the state department for fighting economic crime stated that during the first four months of 2010, Ukrainian law enforcement authorities discovered 107 cases of copyright infringement of Microsoft’s products and that as a result Microsoft initiated 76 proceedings in Ukrainian courts.
The deputy chairman of the Ministry of Education’s intellectual property department said that a special Coordination Board has been created, consisting of state authorities and rights holders, in order to combat the proliferation of unlicensed products in Ukraine.
The Board has outlined several priorities for the 2010-2012 period, which are:
Decreasing the level of software piracy by 5 percent
Making sure that state authorities use legal software
Adopting additional legislation against the producers of pirated products
Organizing additional training for law enforcement officials and judges
Reducing the movement of pirated goods by tightening border control
For more information, please contact Elena Zubenko at our Belgium office.
Source: Unian.net
First Electronic Application for Invention in Ukraine
After working for almost five years on introducing electronic applications, at the beginning of June the Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute received the first electronic application for an invention complete with the digital signature.
The application was prepared and submitted by the patent attorney Tatiana Lisna on behalf of the applicant Taktona, LLC, for an invention in the field of internal combustion engines.
As stated by the Deputy Chairman of the State Department of Intellectual Property Vladimir Dmitrishin, the transition to the paperless form is very important as it will substantially simplify the filing of applications and make the obtaining of industrial property rights procedure faster and cheaper.
For more information, please contact Andriy Nikolayenko at our Ukraine office.
Source: Unian.net
April 26, 2010
Ukraine Rules Against Viasat in Copyright Dispute
Ukraine’s Supreme Court has ruled against satellite television distributor Viasat Ukraine in its dispute with a Ukrainian broadcaster Poverkhnost Sport TV over copyright infringement.
Kyiv Post reported on April 1, 2010 that Poverkhnost Sport TV sued Viasat Ukraine for illegally rebroadcasting Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League soccer matches in the 2008-2009 season. Poverkhnost permitted several TV channels to air the matches terrestrially, but Viasat Ukraine broadcast those channels live via satellite.
Poverkhnost legal representative Viktoria Zhelenkova said the court ordered the defendant to pay a compensation of EUR 742,095 (USD 1,010,362) to the plaintiff. Viasat Ukraine disagrees with the decision and will appeal. “We still question the very fact that this case was heard by the Supreme Court, given that the Constitutional Court defined the High Commercial Court as the supreme body in the economic courts system. As a matter of fact, the ruling of the Supreme Court on a cassation appeal was unprecedented,” stated Oksana Ferchuk, CEO of Viasat Ukraine.
According to Kyiv Post, this is the first time the Supreme Court has ruled on an issue involving copyright infringement between two broadcasters. It is expected that this case will form an important precedent in Ukraine’s copyright practice.
Viasat Ukraine, founded as Vision TV in 2006, operates as a subsidiary of Swedish media conglomerate Modern Times Group and Austria-based supplier of digital satellite receivers, Strong Media Group.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kyiv Post
Eighty-two Percent Ukrainian Companies Involved In IPR Disputes
Eighty-two percent of companies operating in Ukraine have been involved in intellectual property rights disputes in the past three years, according to a poll of 62 companies, out of which 69 percent Ukrainian and 31 percent foreign.
Fifty percent of the companies polled encountered trademark infringement, while 33 percent were faced with illegal use of industrial samples.
Around 61 percent of company representatives blamed poor legislation for the insufficient protection of intellectual property rights in Ukraine, 32 percent blamed corruption and 26 percent a general lack of awareness about IPR.
The companies participating in the poll commissioned by the Arzinger law firm and conducted by the InMind research company, were from the following sectors: alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, foodstuffs, light industry, household chemicals, agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Ukrainian News Agency
March 30, 2010
USD 62,000 Worth of Pirated Disks Seized from Ukrainian Shop
The police officials of the city of Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, have recently seized 14,000 counterfeit CDs of music, movies, computer games and software worth approximately USD 62,000 (EU 45,000).
The operation was conducted as part of Ukraine’s program to suppress the production and sale of pirated audio and video material and ensure the protection of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) IP rights during the Euro 2012 soccer championship, taking place in Ukraine and Poland in June and July of 2012.
During the inspection of the chain store “Mir diskov” in the center of Mariupol, the police found genuine disks located in the store windows, while the cabinets and boxes inside the store contained a large number of pirated ones.
The officials have initiated a legal procedure against the distributors. The investigation has shown that the goods were produced outside Ukraine and that it appears that all stores belong to one owner, but are registered under different names.
For more information, please contact Elena Zubenko in our Belgium office.
Source: Ukrainian IPO
December 22, 2009
Ukrainian Cyrillic Domain to Start Operating by March 2010
The Ukrainian Network Information Center (UNIC) has submitted an application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to register the .ukr domain in Cyrillic.
Although UNIC representatives have stated that the new domain is expected to start operating by March 2010, a number of experts expressed doubts because of the peculiar ICANN rule, under which at least one letter should differ in the shape from the Latin one.
Last month Russia started priority registration of Cyrillic domain names on behalf of trademark owners.
Apart from Ukraine and Russia, other countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet include Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mongolia, Serbia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic in our Balkan Regional Office.
Source: Kyiv Post
November 24, 2009
Ferrero Loses Raffaello Trademark Protection in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Arbitration Court ruled against the well-known Italian confectionery manufacturer Ferrero in the dispute with the Russian company Landrin over the protection of the Raffaello trademark in Ukraine.
Landrin manufactures chocolates under the brand Landrin Waferatto, which are very similar in appearance to Ferrero’s Raffaello candy. The Italian company maintained that Landrin used Raffaello trademark images on its chocolate packages. Landrin argued that Ferrero’s trademark has no distinctive features, while Ferrero argued that the images of the Raffaello candies could be considered a trademark.
Ferrero will appeal the decision before the Ukrainian Supreme Court.
Francesco Paolo Fulci, international vice president of Ferrero, explained that Landrin started producing its round waffle sweets with coconut filling for the Ukrainian market in year 2007, and later it spread to Latvia. Fulci underlined that both the Russian and Latvian courts ruled that these actions of the Russian confectionery company are illegal. He also noted that the head of Landrin is a former Ferrero employee in Russia.
For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic in our Balkan Regional Office.
August 19, 2009
WIPO Holds Summer IP School in Ukraine
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a summer school on intellectual property in Odessa, Ukraine, between July 20 and 30, 2009.
The event was jointly organized by the Ukrainian Intellectual Property Office, the Odessa National Legal Academy, and the WIPO Worldwide Academy.
The objective of the summer school was to enable senior university students and young professionals to acquire deeper knowledge of intellectual property, and to gain an appreciation of IP as a tool for economic, social, cultural and technological development and to reveal the role WIPO plays in the global administration of IP.
The school offered lectures of prominent IP experts from the WIPO and Ukraine, as well as case studies and group discussions on selected topics.
For more information, please contact Jovana Miocinovic in our Balkan Regional Office.
May 12, 2009
Ukraine Accedes to Locarno, Strasbourg and Vienna Agreements
On April 7, 2009, Ukraine acceded to the Locarno Agreement on the International Classification for Industrial Designs, and the Strasbourg Agreement on the International Patent Classification.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Locarno Agreement will enter into force in Ukraine on July 7, 2009, while the Strasbourg Agreement will enter into force on April 7, 2010.
On April 29, 2009, Ukraine acceded to the Vienna Agreement on the International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks. This agreement will enter into force in Ukraine on July 29, 2009.
For more information, please contact Jovana Miočinović in our Balkan Regional Office.
April 10, 2008
Ukraine Joins WTO
On Feb. 5, 2008, the World Trade Organization and Ukraine signed an agreement on Ukraine’s entry into the WTO.
Ukraine must ratify the accession agreement no later than July 4, 2008. 30 days after ratification, Ukraine then becomes a full member of the WTO.
Ukraine President Victor Yushchenko called the WTO membership “a decisive milestone in the development of our economy.”
For more information, please contact Judith Goeke.
November 23, 2005
Ukraine Considering Amendments to Intellectual Property Law
Ukrainian authorities recently considered various amendments to its intellectual property laws. Among other things, they considered amending the definition of the term “applicant”, as outlined in the Law on the Protection of Rights to Trademarks, Geographical Indications and Firm Names.
One of the proposals included the requirement for the applicant to carry out an “economic activity” according to the Ukrainian legislation.
This option is not likely to be adopted by the Ukrainian authorities as it would be contrary to Article 3 (7) of the Trademark Law Treaty (WIPO, 1994), to which Ukraine is a contracting party, which reads:
“In particular, the following may not be required in respect of the application throughout its pendency:
(ii) an indication of the applicant’s carrying on of an industrial or commercial activity, as well as the furnishing of evidence to that effect;
(iii) an indication of the applicant’s carrying on of an activity corresponding to the goods and/or services listed in the application, as well as the furnishing of evidence to that effect”.
Among other issues discussed were the genuine use of registered trademarks and prevention of bad faith registrations.
For more information, please contact our Ukraine representative.
July 13, 2005
Changes in Ukraine IP Legislation
A number of amendments to the current IP legislation in Ukraine are under consideration by the competent legislative bodies of Ukraine.
Accordingly, on July 1, 2005, the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine published on its website drafts for changes to five IP laws:
The Law on Protection of Rights to Trademarks, Geographical Origins and Commercial Names;
The Law on Protection of Rights to Topographies of Integrated Circuits;
The Law on Protection of Rights to Trademarks;
The Law on Protection of Copyright and Related Rights;
The Law on Protection of Rights to Patents and Utility Models.
The draft laws seek to further regulate the conditions for acquiring IP rights, procedural issues, termination and renewal of rights, and IP rights protection.
For more information, please contact our Ukraine representative.
February 09, 2005
New Official Fees in Ukraine
In December 2004 the Ukrainian Government adopted a Decree, which introduced new official fees in the field of intellectual property. The decree came into force on February 5, 2005.
New fees have been established for recordal of changes against pending applications, as well as for the publication of grant for trademarks, patents, industrial designs and utility models.
Regarding trademark matters, the amendments include an additional fee for applications in colour. The basic filing and renewal fees will cover only one class of goods/services. Therefore, an extra fee is foreseen for each additional class in excess of one.
For substantive examination of patents, a lower discount is foreseen if a search report is available (30% instead of 50%).
With respect to the annuities, the 1st and 2nd ones shall not be covered by the filing fee for patents and industrial designs.
Official fees for foreign applicants have been fixed in Euros.
For more information on the new official fees in Ukraine, please contact our Ukraine representative.
January 14, 2005
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PARTICULAR NEWS PIECE BELOW, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2005, IS NO LONGER VALID. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE INVALIDITY OF THIS LAW. INVALIDITY NOTED ON THIS WEBSITE IN JUNE 2005.
Pharmaceutical trademarks in Ukraine must now be written in Cyrillic letters on the drugs and/or the packaging, whether or not the trademark is written in Latin script.
Although using an unregistered Cyrillic mark is widely considered as use of a registered mark in Latin, proving use can be time consuming and expensive, and may involve court proceedings if the proprietor is challenged.
Accordingly, to avoid potential difficulties and differences in phonetics and spelling, we recommend pharmaceutical trademarks to be registered in Cyrillic as well as Latin script.
For more information on pharmaceutical trademarks in Ukraine, please contact our Ukraine representative.