On April 16, 2025, the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO) hosted an inter-agency discussion of the draft Law of Ukraine «On Protection of Trade Secrets», which was developed to implement the provisions of Directive (EU) 2016/943 of June 8, 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.

 

The event was held to implement the Action Plan for the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations presented in the Ukraine Progress Report under the European Union Enlargement Package 2024, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 28, 2025, No. 300. The event was organized in a hybrid format.

 

Bogdan Paduchak and Mykola Pototskyi

 

The discussion was moderated by Bogdan Paduchak, First Deputy Director of UANIPIO, and Mykola Pototskyi, Deputy Director of UANIPIO.

 

Active participation in the discussion was taken by:

 

• Svitlana Tereshchenko, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine;

 

• Serhii Shershun, State Commissioner of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine;

 

• Ihor Benedysiuk, Secretary of the Judicial Chamber for Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Antitrust and Competition Law Cases of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court;

 

• Konstantin Ovcharov, representative of the Main Detective Unit of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine.

 

Mykola Hora and Ihor Benedysiuk

 

Representatives from government agencies, the judiciary and scientific community also participated in discussion.

 

The event was attended offline (at the premises of Ukrainian IP Office):

 

• Mykola Hora, Head of the Expert Group on Agricultural Policy, Consumer Protection and Technical Regulation at the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration;

 

• Inna Shatova, Deputy Head of Intellectual Property and Innovations Department – Head of the State Policy in the Intellectual Property Field Unit;

 

• Oleksandr Doroshenko, Director of the Scientific-Research Institute оf Intellectual Property of the National Academy оf Law Sciences Of Ukraine;

 

• Anatolii Kodynets, Head of the Department of Intellectual Property and Information Law at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

 

Oleksandr Doroshenko, Anatolii Kodynets and Inna Shatova

 

Online, also joined:

 

• Dmytro Guzii, Acting Head of the Intellectual Property and Innovations Department of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine

 

• Yulia Golovko, Head of the Unfair Competition Investigations Department at the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine;

 

• Olesia Lukomska, Head of the Analytical and Legal Work Department of the Commercial Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court;

 

• Dmytro Lashyn, Chief Specialist of the Department of European Union Law at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine;

 

• Yuriy Kapitsa, Director of the Centre for Research on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

 

The Draft Law was developed by joint efforts of UANIPIO, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Justice, the Antimonopoly Committee, the Supreme Court, Scientific-Research Institute оf Intellectual Property of the National Academy оf Law Sciences Of Ukraine, Centre for Research on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Department of Intellectual Property and Information Law of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

 

The consolidated and updated draft law based on the results of the discussion will be sent to international experts of the EU project “EU4IP: Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights in Ukraine and Moldova’, funded by the European Union and implemented by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), for analysis and comments.

 

“This is the first draft law in the field of IP on the implementation of European legislation on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which will be sent to international experts of the EU4IP project. This demonstrates that we are stepping up our efforts to align national legislation and practices to EU standards. At the same time, we are talking not only about transposing EU norms, but also about creating effective legal mechanisms that will work in practice – for business, innovators and society,” emphasized Bogdan Paduchak.

 

The participants of the discussion made meaningful comments and suggestions to the draft law and confirmed the need to continue to bring national IP legislation in line with EU acquis in a qualitative and timely manner.

 

“Trade secrets in Ukraine have not been protected with sufficient efficiency. The IP Office is convinced that with the implementation of EU Directive 2016/943 into Ukrainian legislation, national business will receive modern European tools for the protection of trade secrets, which will generally raise the standards of protection in Ukraine. The developed proposals will concern the activities of key public institutions and businesses, which led to the consolidation of efforts of all stakeholders in this important work,” said Mykola Pototskyi.

 

Subsequently, the finalized draft law will be sent to the European Commission by July 2025 for recommendations and/or comments, as provided for in paragraph 93 of the Action Plan.

 

Read also:

 

Intellectual property sphere is a leader in the fulfilment of Ukraine’s obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU

 

EU-UA: bilateral screening meeting on the alignment of the Ukrainian IP legislation with the EU acquis – focus on industrial property and enforcement