The Supreme Court strengthens international intellectual property cooperation

Despite Russia's full-scale invasion and aggression, international partners have once again shown their support for Ukraine. As a result of the meetings, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) decided to provide further tangible assistance to our country, including in terms of strengthening cooperation and development of the intellectual property sector.

This was discussed during an online meeting of judges of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court with representatives of WIPO and the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (IP Office). Participants also discussed the impact of the war on the functioning of the Ukrainian judiciary.

According to Larysa Rohach, President of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court, the military operations in Ukraine are ongoing and therefore the main task is to preserve our country as a sovereign, independent, democratic state. Despite the difficult circumstances, justice is being administered as usual and the judiciary continues to perform its statutory judicial functions.

The speaker also drew attention to the development of legislation in the IT sector. Ukraine is systematically fulfilling its obligations, in particular to approximate European standards of intellectual property legislation, so that case law in intellectual property disputes is constantly evolving. Among such changes, Larysa Rohach pointed to the reform of copyright law through the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Copyright and Related Rights", which introduced a new sui generis right for a non-original object generated by a computer program. For the first time, the procedure and conditions for the use of orphan works and related rights objects have been regulated at national level. The above is only a partial list of recent developments in the field of copyright and related rights, which are subject to interpretation in case law.

Another important event, according to the President of the Commercial Cassation Court, was the resumption of the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine after a long break. This body is empowered to form the judicial corps of the High Court on Intellectual Property. Taking into account the competitive requirements, the IP Court will employ not only judges but also patent attorneys and lawyers, i.e. the most qualified specialists in this field of law.

According to Larysa Rohach, the usefulness of concentrating the consideration of cases related to the protection of intellectual property rights is obvious. The characteristics of a specialised court ensure that judicial proceedings are efficient, cost-effective and flexible. At the same time, she pointed out that the procedure and jurisdiction of this court are determined by the current Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine. The cassation instance, accordingly, is the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court, and it is therefore the commercial courts that will shape the case law in such disputes.

Over the years, the commercial courts have acquired considerable experience in dealing with this type of dispute. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges", the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court has a chamber that hears cases on the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as cases related to anti-monopoly and competition law. It is important to maintain this experience of applying the law and synthesising case law.

"Given the development of the legislation and its application, the emergence of a constantly new category of disputes, new approaches in the field of intellectual property, we are very interested in improving the skills of both newly appointed judges and judges who already specialise in dealing with the relevant category of disputes," said Larysa Rohach.

Continuing the theme of cooperation between WIPO and the SC, Min Eun Joo, Director of the WIPO Judicial Institute, spoke about the main goals and objectives as well as the opportunities and benefits of integration with WIPO Lex-Judgments.

WIPO's Lex-Judgments database provides access to the most important judgments from around the world relating to intellectual property law, which have been identified by the courts themselves or by other national authorities of each member state as being of particular importance because of their weight or significance as precedents.

WIPO Lex-Judgments complements the information in the WIPO Lex database, a repository of WIPO's global collection of intellectual property laws and treaties. The database contains detailed bibliographical information on all relevant decisions (searchable), including their subject matter, the name of the body that took the decision, the type of consideration, the relevant provisions of the regulations, keywords and summaries, as well as the full texts of the decisions in the original language.

"WIPO's proposal to join the WIPO Lex-Judgments database and to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between WIPO and the Supreme Court is very important and relevant. This is another step in the implementation of Ukraine's chosen course of European integration, economic reconstruction and development," stressed Larysa Rohach.

The event, which took place on July 26, 2023, was also attended by Judges of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court Volodymyr Selivanenko, Ihor Benedysiuk, Tetiana Malashenkova, Iryna Kolos, Yehor Krasnov, as well as by Habip Asan, Director of the WIPO Division for Transition and Developing Countries, Olena Orliuk, Director of the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UNOIPI), Bohdan Paduchak, First Deputy Director of UNOIPI, and Mykhailo Dubinsky, Managing Partner of the Patent Law Agency.