IP Reform: What's New in Ukrainian Patent Law?

The year 2020 is best remembered in Ukraine not only for the pandemic, quarantines and lockdowns, but for rapid ongoing reform in the field of intellectual property.

A reminder that on 1 June 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Concept of Reforming the State System of Legal Protection of Intellectual Property in Ukraine. The Concept provided for, inter alia, replacement of the three-level system of state administration of intellectual property with a two-level one. In 2019, presented draft National Strategy for the Development of the Field of Intellectual Property highlighted the need for institutional reform in the field of intellectual property.

Within the framework of implementation of the Concept, on 16 June 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine No. 703, which should have relaunched the state system of intellectual property protection. However, the initiated reform has not been completed and requires large-scale refinement.

On nuances of the procedure of reforming the system, the new state institution - the National Intellectual Property Authority, significant changes that effected patent legislation and pharmaceutical inventions in particular, as well as on the Ukrainian version of “Bolar exemption” please read in the article by Victoria Sopilnyak and Anastasiya Kazankina for the Ukrainian Law Firms 2021: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVLwMlxe7RcIb4pPmbYDJj0EvnHbVMXy/view?usp=sharing

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