Martial law extends the validity of patents whose term expires during its operation – SC CommCC

The Law of Ukraine dated 1 April 2022 No. 2174-IX “On the Protection of Interests of Persons in the Sphere of Intellectual Property during the Period of Martial Law Introduced in Connection with the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” applies not only to time limits for performing procedural actions in the field of intellectual property, but also to the terms of validity of the proprietary intellectual property rights themselves. If the term of a patent expires during martial law, such a patent is deemed to remain valid until the day following the day of termination or cancellation of martial law.

This conclusion was reached by the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court.

A company filed a claim with the court against the State Organisation “Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations” (UANIPIO) seeking to cancel the decision refusing to extend the term of validity of the proprietary intellectual property rights to the invention “VIRAL ANTIGENS” under Patent of Ukraine No. 85536, and to compel the performance of state registration of supplementary protection for the patent and the issuance of a supplementary protection certificate.

The claim was based on the fact that the patent’s term of validity expired on 17 March 2023, i.e. during the period of martial law, and therefore, in accordance with Law No. 2174-IX, the rights under the patent remained valid. The claimant stated that its application for supplementary protection, filed in May 2025, was lawful.

By a judgment of the commercial court, which was upheld by the resolution of the appellate commercial court, the claim was satisfied. The courts established that the Patent of Ukraine concerned the active pharmaceutical ingredient of a medicinal product, and the practical use of the invention became possible only after the state registration of the vaccine GARDASIL® 9 in July 2023. Accordingly, the claimant was entitled to supplementary protection of the patent under Article 27-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models”.

In its cassation appeal, UANIPIO argued that Law No. 2174-IX only suspends the running of time limits for performing actions related to the protection of intellectual property rights, but does not extend the term of validity of patents. In the appellant’s view, after the expiry of the 20-year term of the patent, the right to supplementary protection had been lost.

The Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court dismissed the cassation appeal and agreed with the conclusions of the lower courts.

The Court noted that Law No. 2174-IX is of an imperative nature and expressly provides that proprietary intellectual property rights whose term of validity expires during martial law remain in force until its termination or cancellation. Therefore, Patent No. 85536 could not be considered terminated on 17 March 2023.

The Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court emphasised that the right to supplementary protection of a patent is compensatory in nature and is intended to protect the interests of owners of pharmaceutical inventions, since the actual use of such inventions is possible only after the medicinal product has undergone state registration.

The Court also pointed out that Law No. 2174-IX applies to all types of proprietary intellectual property rights, and that UANIPIO’s arguments regarding the effect of this Law on the terms of validity of patents are unfounded.

Resolution of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court dated 30 April 2026 in case No. 910/9528/25 — https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/136149374.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua/.