The State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine (UA PTO) has presented its ideas for developing a national IP rights protection system to members of the European Business Association.
The EBA provides foreign businesses with a forum for discussing and resolving problems facing the private sector in Ukraine. A specialist EBA committee is expected to discuss UA PTO’s draft concept in the near future.
The UA PTO’s concept looks at recent developments in the IP regulatory environment and outlines a step plan for further development between now and 2014. Its key ideas are:
- continuing to harmonise national IP legislation with EU law and join international IP agreements
- harmonising specialist national IP laws and regulations with the Civil Code and other legislation
- improving the practical and regulatory framework for examining applications to protect inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks etc
- improving the legislative mechanisms aimed at encouraging innovation and creativity
The concept also:
- accepts that some strengthening of the protection for IP rights will be required as part of any agreement with the EU
- states that the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and the EU will include a dedicated IP section which will establish the basic principles for protecting IP rights
- identifies problems which have not yet been resolved, such as piracy, lack of control over protection of IP rights and inadequate penalties for infringing copyright and related rights
- identifies potential legislative improvements in the way IP rights are protected and enforced, improvements to copyright and related rights and the way applications to protect industrial designs etc are examined, ideas to allow public access to IP data, suggested training for IP specialists and ways to raise public awareness of IP rights
