Ukraine slightly reduced the fee for filing a TM application and unblocked the post-grant opposition procedure
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made changes to its Resolution "On approval of the Procedure for payment of fees for actions related to the protection of rights to intellectual property objects", which will enter into force on September 18, 2023.
In particular, the amount of the discount for submitting trademark applications in electronic form was increased to 25% from the current 20%. Thus, the application fee for each class (without specifying the color) is reduced to 3,000 UAH ($82) from 3,200 UAH ($88).
However, the fee for an appeal to the Appeals Chamber against a decision on a trademark application has doubled - up to 6,800 UAH ($186) instead of 3,400 UAH ($93).
In addition, new items have been added to the list of fees that should unlock the post-grant opposition mechanism for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs.
The possibility of out-of-court invalidation of intellectual property rights was enshrined in the legislation of Ukraine as early as 2020. However, due to the lack of appropriate state fees, the procedure was practically impossible, and the parties remained limited exclusively to the judicial procedure.
Currently, the fee for submitting an application to declare the rights to an invention, utility model or industrial design invalid to the Appeals Chamber is set at 32,000 UAH ($874).
Ukraine has adopted laws on digital content and digital services
On August 10, 2023, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted two draft laws on digital content and digital services.
The laws introduce the term "digital thing" and describe the peculiarities of the circulation of digital content as a type of digital thing and the peculiarities of the provision of digital services.
According to the definition in the law, a good with digital elements is a movable thing that contains digital content, or is related to its use in such a way that the absence of digital content would make it impossible for the given good to perform its main functions;
A digital thing is a good that is created and exists exclusively in a digital environment and has property value. A digital thing is virtual assets, digital content, and other goods.
A digital service is a service that enables the consumer to create, process, store, and distribute data in digital form, as well as perform any other actions with data in digital form that was created or uploaded by the consumer or other users of this service.
The Civil Code is supplemented by the definition that objects of civil rights can exist in the material world and/or the digital environment, which determines the form of objects, features of acquisition, exercise, and termination of civil rights and obligations in relation to them.
From now on, there is the opportunity to enter into agreements with digital things and be protected at the legal level in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, the procedure for importing unregistered varieties of plants has been simplified
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the resolution "On approval of the Procedure for issuing or refusing to issue, reissuing, canceling confirmation of import into Ukraine and export from Ukraine of samples of seeds and planting material of plant varieties and control over their use."
The resolution fulfills Ukraine's European integration obligations to enable entrepreneurs to use a small number of seeds and planting material of unregistered varieties for scientific purposes or breeding work.
According to the resolution, the appropriate procedure for issuing or refusing, reissuing, canceling confirmation of importation of seed samples and planting material of plant varieties into Ukraine and control over their use is established.
Also approved is the application form for issuing confirmation and importing into Ukraine samples of seeds and planting material of plant varieties that are not included in the State Register of Plant Varieties, suitable for distribution, selection, research works and their display.
Control over the use of seed samples and planting material is carried out by the State Production and Consumer Service.
This should simplify, in particular, the importation of plant variety samples for trials within the procedure for patenting plant variety rights.
