On December 10, 2024, a bilateral meeting between Ukraine and the European Commission began in Brussels (Belgium) as part of the screening of the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with the EU acquis under Chapter 7 “Intellectual Property Law”.
The meeting is held in a hybrid format and will last for two days. The screening is an integral part of the negotiation process on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. The screening examine the main achievements of Ukraine in the IP field, gaps in national legislation in relation to the EU acquis and the main priorities for further reforms on the path to Ukraine’s full membership in the EU.
The Ukrainian delegation in Brussels includes representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/IP Office), the Government Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, the Supreme Court, and the Scientific-Research Institute of Intellectual Property of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian delegation is headed by Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine – Minister of Justice of Ukraine. Vitaliy Kindrativ, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Deputy Head of the delegation, also takes part in the screening.
UANIPIO is represented in Brussels:
Representatives of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention and UANIPIO also joined the meeting online.
Such a highly representative meeting demonstrates the importance of this process for both sides of the negotiations. This was emphasized by representatives of the European Commission when opening the meeting. They noted that intellectual property law was also part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and the EU-Ukraine Intellectual Property Rights Dialogue was launched in 2006 to address issues of mutual interest to the Ukrainian and European parties.
The European Commission representatives also noted the close institutional cooperation of the Ukrainian IP Office with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and emphasized the 2023 and 2024 Enlargement Package Reports, which state that the intellectual property sphere has achieved a certain level of progress. They expressed the belief that strengthening of IP enforcement at the national level is important for attracting foreign direct investment, which will be extremely important as Ukraine enters the recovery and rebuilding phase.
Intellectual property rights are a vital component of the European integration process of Ukraine. They are more than just a set of legal rules; they are the foundation for promoting innovation, protecting creativity, and ensuring fair competition. A strong and effective intellectual property system is essential for Ukraine to build a knowledge-based economy, attract investment, and participate fully in the EU Single Market. Olha Stefanishyna emphasized this in her welcome remarks, adding that over the past few years, Ukraine has already adopted a number of laws and regulations that bring our intellectual property legal system closer to the EU acquis.
The Head of the Ukrainian delegation emphasized the need for recognition by the European Union of 29 geographical indications originating from the territory of Ukraine. She expressed her belief that the sooner this recognition is granted, the sooner the attempts of the Russian Federation to appropriate geographical indications originating from the temporarily occupied territories will be leveled.
Olha Stefanishyna also emphasized that Ukraine will develop a roadmap of accession to the European Patent Convention: “We are focused on strengthening the legal protection of inventions and utility models in accordance with the best European practices and the European Patent Convention”, – Deputy Prime Minister noted.
Vitaliy Kindrativ noted that over the next two days the Ukrainian delegation will present an overview of the current Ukrainian legislation and discuss with the European Commission the following changes to adapt it to EU law. An important task is to effectively address the existing challenges, which will provide Ukrainian creators, innovators and investors with a new level and conditions for their development during this crucial period of negotiations with the EU.
During the first day of the bilateral meeting, a number of presentations were made on the implementation of the EU acquis, in particular, those regulating collective management of copyright and related rights, term of protection of copyright and certain related rights, resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art, Marrakesh Treaty on certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled, orphan works, cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market, legal protection of computer programs, topographies of semiconductor products.
The level of alignment of the national legislation with the EU acquis, regulating these issues, was presented by:
In order to prepare materials for these meetings, the Government of Ukraine engaged more than 30 state agencies, academic institutions and associations dealing with intellectual property issues.
In addition, projects funded by the European Union and its member states were involved, including the EU4IP project, GiZ and CPVA assistance projects. The EUIPO and the European Patent Office (EPO) played an important role in strengthening Ukraine’s European integration efforts.
For information:
Screening is a formal procedure during which the European Commission, together with a candidate country for EU membership, analyses the compliance of the candidate country’s national legislation with the relevant EU acquis. The screening takes place under 33 negotiating chapters, which are grouped into 6 clusters (thematic blocks) in accordance with the revised EU enlargement methodology in 2020. Chapter 7 “Intellectual Property Law” is considered under Cluster 2 “Internal Market”.
Read also:
The first successful IP mediation case in Ukraine was realized within the IP Office
No Comments