Ukrainian companies regard the low development level of adequate legislation as one of the major problems in the sphere of protection of intellectual property rights, according to the  research which was presented by counsel and  attorney-at-law of the law firm "Arzinger" Oleksiy Yasinsky at the round table discussion "The State of the Sphere of Protection of intellectual property in Ukraine and the culture of its perception as compared with Western countries", which took place on June 9 in the press center of  LIGABusinessInform.

 

At the same time, the lawyer himself does not treat this problem as principal for Ukraine. It could be as well referred to deficiencies in all other branches. In his opinion, the thing is most likely that by far not all Ukrainian companies are willing and ready to uphold their interests in the sphere of intellectual property. To support this point, O. Yasinsky cited an example of a big national company, whose trademark rights had been violated and which, however, did not stand up for its rights in the legal order pleading that its budget did not provide for such outlay.

 

In the judgment of state authorities, basic problems regarding the protection of intellectual property rights in Ukraine root not so much in the legislation as in the general culture of Ukrainian consumers.

 

According to the Head of the Industrial Property Rights Enforcement Administration of the State Department of Intellectual Property Irina Vasilenko, the Ukrainian legislation in this sphere is for the most part up to international standards. Otherwise, says I. Vasilenko, Ukraine wouldn’t have managed it to become a member of WTO. "Everybody must personally answer the question, whether he or she buys pirated optical disks or downloads films and games in the Internet… It is a matter of culture",  said the representative  of the State Department. It is the attitude development regarding intellectual property, but not tougher punishment for violation of intellectual property rights, which might in her sight help upgrade the protection of intellectual property objects in Ukraine.