The Government has approved an intellectual property management policy in the defense industry, which was developed with the active participation of UANIPIO (Ukrainian IP Office).

According to the statement from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the intellectual property management policy in the defense industry establishes general rules for the State and manufacturers regarding the protection of the development results and their subsequent use.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, these include:

• protection of rights to technologies developed in the public sector or procured with public funds;

• clear rules for government contracting authorities and enterprises regarding intellectual property management;

• the ability to effectively scale up existing solutions in manufacturing.

The objectives of this policy are:

• to protect the rights to defense technologies developed by state-owned defense industry enterprises or acquired through defense procurement by state customers or public funds;

• to ensure the effective use of these technologies in the production of defense-related products.

It was at the UANIPIO basis that the discussions began and subsequently active work was undertaken to define the general framework and philosophy of this act. Experts from the IP Office developed and submitted a draft version for further preparation, which was adopted as the basis.

Following this, the relevant intellectual property departments of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Economy and UANIPIO continued their productive work on finalizing the document, which was adopted on a significant day – Ukraine’s Defense Industry Workers’ Day (April 13).

The adoption of an intellectual property management policy in the defense industry is of the utmost importance both for the IP sphere and for enhancing the country’s defense capabilities. This was emphasized by Olena Orliuk, Director of the Ukrainian IP Office, in her comments on the Government’s decision:

“Today, Ukraine is an example of progress in the defense technologies, our experience is studying globally and everyone – from partners to third-party market players – is “hunting” for our developments. Protecting these innovations, standardizing them in accordance with the best global practices and promoting them effectively is our top priority.

The adoption of the common policy means clear and transparent rules of the game for all participants in the global defense technology market. In practice, this will lead to faster implementation and production of MilTech developments, which, first and foremost, means saving the lives of our military personnel and civilians, protecting our cities and villages and thus bringing us closer to victory.”

For reference:

According to the Cabinet of Ministers, more than 900 state-owned and private companies and over 300,000 people are currently working in the defense industry, developing new military technologies.

More than 50% of the weaponry currently used on the frontline is now of Ukrainian production. This includes, in particular, unmanned systems, artillery and communication systems.

Read also:

Intellectual property in 2025: key results in the field

Counterfeit goods – a threat to food security: A scheme involving counterfeit agricultural fertilizers labeled with global brands has been exposed in Ukraine