Ukraine

Basic data on adopting EU legislation in the area of IPR in Ukraine

based on consultations with State Department for Legislation Approximation, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (Taras Kachka, Deputy Head); their report "Review of the State of Ukrainian Legislation Approximation to acquis communautaire" (2006); 1104-page monograph "Intellectual Property Law of the European Union and the Legislation of Ukraine" (2006) written by their experts and the experts from the Center of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer of NAS of Ukraine; presentations at the conference "Current state-of-art of intellectual property protection in Ukraine and directions of approximation of the legislation to the European Union standards" organized by NAS of Ukraine, State Department of Intellectual Property, Ukrainian Institute of Industrial Property and the British Council of Ukraine (April 12, 2006) and consultations with the Department on Copyright and Related Rights, State Department of Intellectual Property (Head of the department Tamara Davydenko):

According to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States and Ukraine signed in 1994 in Ukraine there should be the same level of IP protection as in EU (more or less the same goes to Russia, Moldova, Belarus and Eurasia). In 2004 the National program of Approximation of Ukrainian Legislation to EU standards was launched. And IPR was a priority issue. They translated about 30 EU legal acts and 90 EU Court of Justice cases in IPR domain, conducted research on IPR regulation in EU, provided complex legal analysis on conformity of Ukrainian law with the EU law and prepared the Scoreboard of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the legislation of EU.

Their general conclusion is that that the basic principle of Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of IP protection corresponds to the legislation on EU in general. High level of adjustment is typical in general for computer programs, trade marks protection, but some other spheres of regulation require further improving. It relates to the introduction into the legislation of Ukraine of the institute of sui generis right for data bases, some peculiarities of protection of biotechnological inventions, industrial design, copyright and related rights, plant variety rights, trade names protection, competition law concerning IPR. As to the copyright and related rights the following closes are going to added this year to Ukrainian legislation:

Legal protection of computer programs (91/250/EU): closes 4 (a), 5, 6, 7 (1).

Rental and lending rights and certain rights related to copyright (92/100/EU): paragraphs 5, 6, 17, 19, 20, 22, of preamble, closes 1, 2 (1) and (5), 4, 4 (1) and (2), 4 (3) and (4), article 5 (3), (2), second sentence of article 13 (9).

Broadcasting and cable retransmission (89/552/EU): paragraph 16 of preamble and closes 1, 2 (3), 11; (93/83/EU): paragraphs 14, 15, 17, 28 of preamble and closes 1 (2) and (3), 3 (2) and (3), 8 (1), 9 (1), 9 (2), 10, 11, 12 (1).

Harmonization of the terms of protection of copyright and related rights (93/98/EU): paragraphs 17, 22-23 of preamble and closes 3 (1) and (2), 5, 6, 11 (2).

Legal protection of data bases (96/9/EU): closes 6 (2), 7-10

Copyright and related rights in the information society (2001/29/EU): paragraphs 17, 23, 25, first sentence of 28, 33, 38, 39, 42, 45, 55, 59, of preamble and the first paragraph of close 2, closes 3 and 3 (1) 3 (2), 5 (1) and (1) (b), 5 (2) (a), (b), (c), (d), 5 (3) (a), (b), (j), (h), (l), (m), 6 (2) and (4), 8 (3).

Resale right (2001/84/EU): paragraphs 6, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30 of preamble, and closes 1 (2), 2, 3 (1), 4 (1,2), 5, 7 (1).

There are similar lists of additions for Industrial property protection, topographies of semiconductor products, plant variety rights, trade secrets and know-how, IP law and computer law issues, but I think that it's not very relevant for us. If you are interesting I can send this information.

Another issue is Legal status of intellectual property lay objects - research results, created at the expense of Government finance: Standing order of EU # 2321/2002: close 1 (2), (3), (4), (5), 21 (6), 22 (2), (3), 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.

There are also lists for protection of IPR (2004/48/EU) providing enforcement: closes 6, 8, 9, 9 (1) (a), 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and closes of TRIPS 50 (1) (a), (3), (4), customs measures (Standing order of EU # 1383/2003: closes 2 (1), (a) (ii), (iii), (3), 3 (1), 4, 5 (5) (iii), (7), 8 (1), 9, 11, 14, 19, close 58 of TRIPS.

As to the state of mentioned approximation it's the following:

Legal protection of computer programs - 90% approximation done

Rental and lending rights and certain rights related to copyright - 80%

Broadcasting and cable retransmission - 80%

Harmonization of the terms of protection of copyright and related rights - 80%

Legal protection of data bases (copyright) - 90%

Legal protection of data bases (sui generis) - 0%

Copyright and related rights in the information society - 80%

Resale right - 80%

Production, sale, import and export of CDs - 110% (Ukraine has the strongest legislation in the world and Bulgaria is the second strongesr)

Supplementary protection of pharmaceutical products - 100%

Inventions in the field of biotechnology - 80%

Utility models protection - 80%

Industrial design protection - 90%

Trade mark protection - 90%

Geographical indicators - 80%

Trade names protection - 70%

Topography of semiconductor products - 90%

Plant variety rights - 70%

Trade secrets and know-how - 80%

Legal status of intellectual property lay objects - research results, created at the expense of Government finance - 0%

Protection of IPR - 90%

Customs measures - 80%

Competition law - 80%

(posted by Iryna Kuchma)