Twenty-First Century Passport

Anna Ostanina, an associate with DLA Piper Ukraine, comments: “One of the outstanding issues is registration of commercial concession (franchise) agreements. While the Civil Code of Ukraine requires registration of commercial concession (franchise) agreements in order for them to be valid in the relations of the parties to an agreement with third persons, at the present time there is no practical possibility of putting this rule into practice due to the absence of a procedure for registration of commercial concession agreements at the level of by-laws regulation. Another important issue concerns border measures. Valid legislation on the registration of IP objects with the Customs Register does not provide for the possibility of registration of and control over crossing the state border of Ukraine by goods containing IP objects protected by patents. The high depo sit/bank guarantee sum required makes registration of IP objects at the Customs Register unattractive for many categories of IP owners and, thus, exercise of such preventive measures in the struggle for their IP protection appears to be impossible.”

Doubinsky & Osharova is involved in extraordinary litigation process on obtaining well-known status for the “Mirgorodska” trademark, which is internationally known. Being aware of all innovations in the sphere, Doubinsky & Osharova succeeded in protecting the “Lexus” trademark from infringement in a domain name before the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. The firm, as well as Michael Doubinsky, its managing partner, have for several years running been ranked by the Chambers Global as Brand 1 in the area of Ukrainian intellectual property practice. The firm’s attorneys at law, namely Victoria Sopilnyak, Anton Koval, Mariya Shverk and Yaroslav Ognevyuk, are qualified professionals with reach experience in IP related matters.

IP boutique Pakharenko & Partners is recognized by colleagues and highly appreciated by clients. Over the course of many years Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson has been ranked among the Top-5 leading individuals by our publication. As regards practical work, the firm successfully accomplished anti-counterfeiting cases for Adidas and Nike.

Konnov & Sozanovsky has strong litigation experience in all key practice areas of intellectual property. In 2007 the firm successfully represented the interests of a world famous publisher of books, magazines, CDs and Internet issues for professional users in the procedure of obtaining exclusive rights to its trademarks on the territory of Ukraine by means of their respective registration with the State Department of Intellectual Property; received permission to include into the name of the “Film UA” trademark the indication of the state of “Ukraine” (in the form of the “UA” code). Konnov & Sozanovsky also represented the interests of Point Com LLC in the commercial courts of Ukraine in a law suit on protection of copyrights and related rights to ringtones and realtones of the musical composition “Never Let You Go” performed by Dima Bilan as well as the interests of Soremartec S.A. (Ferrero Group) registered under the “Raffaello” TM in the case of violation of the client’s rights by Elit Ltd, a Lutsk based company. Tatiana Glukhovskaya, managing partner, and Julia Semeniy, recently elected partner and head of the intellectual property department, are top IP lawyers.

The Grischenko & Partners patent and law firm provided legal support in all aspects of intellectual property rights in Ukraine, namely registering patents and trademarks, legal assistance and registering all license agreements, protecting the interests of clients in relationships with their partners and state organizations. Maya Lgova is a certified patent attorney and a partner of the firm. Nickolay Atanasov deals with IP rights protection and dispute resolution.

Dmitrieva & Partners provides assistance in registering, transferring and protecting the rights to objects of intellectual property, including drafting of necessary documents on receiving security documents on objects of IP, drafting and registration of license contracts, consultations on intellectual property valuation and its effective use in business, execution of documents for registration of rights to objects of IP, development of recommendations on organizing non-material assets of an enterprise and the disposal of objects of IP. Anzhelika Vakhnitska specializes in IP. The team of the Kiev office of DLA Piper advised Hypo- Alpe-Adria-Leasing Holding AG, which is one of the leading international financial companies operating in the sphere of leasing, on data protection laws in Ukraine in comparison with European laws; provided full legal support to Gloria Jeans Coffees International with regard to registration of several of its trademarks. Its also provided advice on IP (trademark and knowhow) licensing for the InterContinental Hotels Group. Natalia Pakhomovska and Anna Ostanina come recommended.

The IP practice of Baker & McKenzie has represented Mary Kay in trademark prosecution and opposition work in Ukraine; British American Tobacco in IP litigation; provided legal support to Molinos Rio de la Plata S.A, a leading international food industry company based in Argentina in trademark assignment issues, as well as structuring the entire transaction in Ukraine; represented Diageo with regard to enforcement and trademark prosecution issues and PepsiCo, Inc Ruslan Drobyazko and Yuliya Kolchenko are the leading lawyers of its IP practice. The group of lawyers of Gramatskiy & Partners attorneys at law are ready to provide services regarding support and legal assistance in the registration of signs for goods and services, trademarks, performing complex expertise and assessment of the value of IP objects, protection of rights on signs for goods and services, representation of the interests of authors, inventors, studios, producers. Alexander Koval and Igor Reutov are key experts of Gramatskiy & Partners in the IP field.

During 2007 the Jurvneshservice law firm represented a client within proceedings begun with the aim of cancelling a trademark certificate. The opposing party to the dispute had used the mentioned certificate as the basis for a raider attack. During the dispute’s consideration the issue of cancellation of the trademark certificate was raised. In addition, the lawyers of Jurvneshservice, for example, Taras Kulbaba, are engaged in registration of IP rights, namely trademarks and industrial designs.

The law offices of Frishberg & Partners offer clients a full range of legal services relating to the protection of IP, including representation before the Chamber of Appeals of the State Patent Office of Ukraine, Antimonopoly Committee and other entities. Some of the Frishberg & Partners’ intellectual clients include: Ceccon & Associati, Ciech S.A., Collier, Shannon, Scottt LLC, Colucci & Umans, F.L.Smidt & Co., KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Linklaters & Alliance, Marpatas Trademarks & Patents Bureau Co. Ltd, Ridout & Maybee, T.S. International Corporation, IFPA Secretariat, Numico Financial Services, Samperit Technische Producte among others.

LEXFOR, headed by partner Vladislav Shapoval, has accumulated exclusive experience in IP law. The firm focuses on legal protection of copyrights (especially software), trademarks and confidential information. LEXFOR leads anti-piracy and anticounterfeiting campaigns in Ukraine on behalf of big multinational clients (e.g. Microsoft, Philip Morris) and international associations like the Business Software Alliance.

Shevchenko Didkovskiy & Partners advised Coca-Cola on a large variety of IP issues, including information protection policy and liability of its staff for unauthorized disclosure of information and Beiersdorf in connection with trademark registration and licensing agreements; provided legal support to Nissan Motors; advised New Line Cinema on IP rights protection of translators in accordance with Ukrainian law in relation to the subtitling and dubbing of movies; provided advice in the field of IP data protection for Du Pont and Energizer on marking of goods and protection of consumers. Oleksandr Padalka and Boris Snizhko were mentioned among the leading practitioners in the said field. In 2007 the Kiev office of Beiten Burkhardt launched its IT/IP practice aimed at providing general legal advice to a number of foreign companies on commercial secrets rules and regulations to be implemented in Ukraine. Tatiana Tymchenko headed the IP practice.