From 1st to 3rd of December a training for Ukrainian judges of the general jurisdiction was organized in the SE “Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute” (Ukrpatent). This event was organized within the framework of the EU-funded Twinning Project “Strengthening the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in Ukraine”. The three-days programme, composed of 6 modules, was attended by more 60 participants, representing the High specialized court of Ukraine for civil and criminal cases. Appellate court of Kyiv, district courts of Kyiv, appellate courts from different regions of Ukraine, Institute of scientific research for legal support of innovation development of the National academy of legal science of Ukraine. Moreover, due to the previous positive experience of their colleagues, representatives of the High economic court of Ukraine, Appellate economic court of Kyiv, Economic court of Kyiv and Economic court of Kyiv region also took part in the training.

From 1st to 3rd of December a training for Ukrainian judges of the general jurisdiction was organized in the SE “Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute” (Ukrpatent). This event was organized within the framework of the EU-funded Twinning Project “Strengthening the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in Ukraine”.

The three-days programme, composed of 6 modules, was attended by more 60 participants, representing the High specialized court of Ukraine for civil and criminal cases. Appellate court of Kyiv, district courts of Kyiv, appellate courts from different regions of Ukraine, Institute of scientific research for legal support of innovation development of the National academy of legal science of Ukraine. Moreover, due to the previous positive experience of their colleagues, representatives of the High economic court of Ukraine, Appellate economic court of Kyiv, Economic court of Kyiv and Economic court of Kyiv region also took part in the training.

The trainers were experienced Spanish judges specialized in cases related to IPR infringement, both in Spain and on the EU level: Angel Galgo, head of the Appellate Economic court of Madrid, and Enrique Garcia-Chamon, head of the Appellate Economic court of Alicante. As always, Mr. Pablo Rodenas, Resident Twinning Adviser, was moderating the working procedures.

During the introduction speech, speakers underlined the importance of the event in order to improve the judiciary in Ukraine. Intellectual property has a crucial law in the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with acquis communautaire. According to Mr. Angel Galgo, up until 1986 in Spain the IP legislation is force was the one approved in the 30ties; that is why it was crucial to reform it in order to enter the EU. Ukraine is facing now a situation similar to the one in Spain 30 years ago.

The introductory module, presented by Mr. Angel Galgo, was dedicated to the general notions in industrial property. The speaker paid attention of the participants to the difference existing between the industrial property object and the object it is incorporated on; presented the main prerequisites for the enforcement of IPR. It was noted the importance of IPR protection, both globally and nationally. According to Mr. Galgo, a study of the Office for Harmonization of Internal Market, organized in 2013 and 2015, proves the high economic importance of IPR: from 2.3 mln SME, that constitute an important share of the EU economy, more than 50% are IPR-intenstive. These IPR-intensive companies pay up to 40% to their employees and ensure 90% of export from EU to the rest of the world. These companies create 39% of the EU GDP. Mr. Galgo also presented the main IP rights and detailed the legal system responsible for each of the rights in the EU, stressing the importance of harmonization in judicial practice.

In the following part of the training Mr. Enrique Garcia-Chamon explained in detail the main features of trademark rights that exist in the EU. Among the questions analyzed: coexistence of European and national legislation, insurance of common protection standards for IPR in order to stimulate economic relationships within the EU, conflicts between signs, differences between a Directive and a Regulation, jurisdiction of cases depending of the geographical location of the infringer, of the rightholder, of the place of infringement. The speaker presented a high number of concrete cases, related to well-known trademarks, problems with registration of three-dimensional trademarks, attempts to register colors as such for trademarks, explained the grounds for refusal to register scents as trademarks in the EU.  A major part of the training was dedicated to absolute and relative grounds of refusal in registration of trademarks. The Spanish judge, after having explained the difference between both categories, provided with examples of ECJ decisions concerning such grounds as lack of distinctive character, misleading trademarks, usage of generally accepted symbols (emblems of international organizations, flags, religious symbols etc.). Exemples were provided for three-dimensional applications for signs used to achieve a technical result (cases Philips, LEGO, Bang & Olufsen), protection of unregistered well-known trademarks and others. Part of the module was dedicated to the consequences of an infringement of trademark rights, the definition of losses caused, the cooperation between plaintiff and defendant with the judicial authority. Structure and activities of appellate bodies were presented.

During the module dedicated to patent law, Mr. Angel Galgo presented the acquis communautaire in this field, together with international conventions: Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, TRIPS Agreement, PCT, Munich Convention on the Grant of European Patents, Convention for the European Patent for the Common Market, which will finally enter into force in January 2017 after years of preparations. The speaker presented criteria of patentability, subjective and objective requisites, exclusions and exceptions from patentability. He also explained the peculiarities of biotechnological patents. A special attention was dedicated to enforcement principles from the point of view of the subject of rights (one inventor, a group of inventors) and to general procedure for cases of patent infringement.

The programme of the training was followed by modules dedicated to copyright and related rights. Basic provisions of international legislation were analyzed, together with national regime, automatic protection and independence of protection principles; peculiarities of copyright and related rights protection in the modern world, related to an active development of digital services and Internet. Theoretical provisions were illustrated with decisions of the ECJ.

After the completion of the training all registered participants received official participation certificates issued by the Twinning Project.  Mr. Pablo Rodenas, Resident Twinning Adviser, thanked both the speakers and participants for their fruitful cooperation and expressed the hope that trainings, organized by the Twinning Project, will contribute to the imminent implementation of EU experiences in IPR enforcement into the practice of Ukrainian judges.

Spanish expert provide you with the opportunity to download the presentations (in Ukrainian).

"Industrial property: general information" (PPSX, 0,6 MB)
"Trademarks" (RAR, 2,5 MB)
"Patent law" (RAR, 0,2 MB)
"Copyright" (RAR, 0,2 MB)

04 December 2015