Supreme Court judges join discussion on topical intellectual property protection issues at WIPO regional seminar

Judge-Rapporteur of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Kostiantyn Pilkov and Secretary of the Judicial Chamber for consideration of cases concerning the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as those related to antitrust and competition law, of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court Ihor Benedysiuk took part in the Regional Seminar for Judges on Current Issues in Intellectual Property Rights, which was held in Priekuļi (Cēsis Municipality, Latvia).

The annual event brought together judges from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine to discuss current trends in the field of intellectual property, exchange judicial experience and practice in the application of legislation, and develop professional interaction among judges specialising in intellectual property matters.

The programme of the first day covered issues of modern judicial practice in the field of intellectual property, copyright in the context of the development of artificial intelligence, interpretation of patent claims, and protection of trade secrets. In particular, the participants discussed authorship, ownership and liability in relation to works connected with artificial intelligence, the limits of trade secret protection, confidentiality issues and the corresponding means of legal protection.

The second day of the seminar was devoted to trade mark issues and the exchange of judicial experience. Topics included, inter alia, the practice of the Boards of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), partial use of a trade mark, well-known trade marks, comparison of signs and the likelihood of confusion. The practical part involved group case studies on trade marks.

A separate part of the programme was dedicated to regional experience sharing. Participants were presented with a comparative report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on judicial structures and procedures in the field of intellectual property, followed by an overview of current case law in Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine. This part concluded with a discussion of intellectual property cases in the regional context.

Within the framework of the seminar, Kostiantyn Pilkov delivered a presentation on topical issues of case law in the field of intellectual property rights protection in Ukraine.

The judge noted the trends of Europeanisation of the Supreme Court case law (the Court increasingly refers to sources of European Union law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union) and the application of principles, in particular the principle of good faith, in resolving IP disputes. Kostiantyn Pilkov illustrated his presentation with four cases concerning copyright and trade mark rights in which the Supreme Court set out important conclusions in 2026.

A shortened version of the presentation for the speech in English is available at the following link: https://court.gov.ua/storage/portal/supreme/prezent2026/Pilkov_Presentation_09_2026.pdf.

The event was organised by WIPO in co-operation with the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia (LPO), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO).