During the most significant annual event for the intellectual property sphere - the WIPO General Assembly - russian officials, in particular the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent), decided to deliberately remind everyone they do not care about the principles of the UN Charter, the high mission and vision of WIPO.
This morning, the global IP community found out that russia has appropriated the Melitopol Cherry geographical indication (GI), registered in Ukraine in 2020, with the defined geographical boundaries of the city of Melitopol and its surrounding settlements. Unfortunately, after February 24, 2022, these territories were temporarily occupied by Russian troops.
The First Deputy of the Ukrainian IP Office Bogdan Paduchak stated it on July 12 during his speech on agenda item 12 "Madrid System" at the 65th series of meetings of the Assemblies of WIPO Member States.
He informed international community that today Rospatent announced the registration of a regional brand in so-called "new regions of the russian federation," quoting a russian official who said the registration of this GI from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine "is only the beginning, and that many more will follow."
“Russia cynically disrespected the global intellectual property community during the General Assembly, and once again demonstrated to the world that there are no moral boundaries for them and that the provisions of international agreements and rules do not apply to them”, - stated Bogdan Paduchak
He added that over the past year, at these Assemblies and other WIPO venues, the Ukrainian delegation has stated that IP has become a hostage and a weapon in the hands of the terrorist state:
“If someone did not believe us last time, today we see a direct and indisputable example of this statement. In addition to oppression, occupation, deportation and concentration camps, Russia has inflicted even more harm on the population of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine by stealing their traditions and intellectual property.
As stated in the Preamble to the WIPO Convention, the Contracting Parties agreed to establish this Organization in order to contribute to better understanding and cooperation among States for their mutual benefit, On The Basis Of Respect for Their Sovereignty and Equality. Such a blatant violation should be responded to within WIPO” - Bogdan Paduchak is convinced.
The representative of the Ukrainian delegation strongly called for the only possible effective response of WIPO to such actions:
- closing the WIPO external office in moscow;
- termination of funding for any WIPO projects for Russia;
- ceasing cooperation with Russian officials and putting pressure on them to immediately stop using WIPO's intellectual property, platforms and resources to legitimize the illegal occupation of Ukraine's territories;
- and, as a result, to decide that Russia does not deserve a seat in this Assembly.
He also expressed a protest against the introduction of the russian language into the Madrid system:
“Following the recent discussion within the Madrid Working Group, we recall that while we are not opposed to the idea of introducing new languages, we find insufficient justification for the Russian language introduction in the Madrid System”.
This position of Ukraine, along with the condemnation of Russia's actions, was supported by the delegations of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Croatia. Moldova, on behalf of the CEBS member states, stated that it was impossible to make a decision on the introduction of the language of the aggressor country in the Madrid system.
Read other news from the WIPO General Assembly:
- The Ukrainian government delegation appeals to the WIPO General Assembly for theft by russia of the geographical indication “Melitopol Cherry”
- WIPO General Assembly: Bogdan Paduchak calls for further discussion of approaches to determining the scope of country names and state symbols imitation