Despite the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian IP Office (Ukrpatent) continues to work.
Still, the IP rights protection system faces restrictions in Ukraine.
1. Ukrpatent continues to accept new applications for trademarks, patents, and copyrights – both under national and international procedures.
But, in electronic form only. In all procedures, where paper copies are required, Ukrpatent accepts scan copies with the obligation of an applicant/representative to provide paper copies after the end of a state of war.
The same rules apply to the registration of license/assignment agreements, filing oppositions, etc.
2. Ukrpatent keeps running examination procedures and publishing decisions on IP objects registration.
The new registration certificates are temporarily available in electronic form only. Paper copies will be printed and sent later.
3. The Ukrainian parliament passed the law On Protection of Interests of Intellectual Property in Martial Law, according to which the duration of terms related to the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as deadlines for procedures for acquiring these rights are suspended.
Also, the law allows authorized persons to submit documents (applications, petitions, objections, answers, etc.), within 90 days from the date of abolition of martial law, without paying a fee for extension or renewal of the relevant terms.
4. The Board of Appeals of Ukrpatent has suspended operations.
Also, the courts in regions, where active combats are, suspended all their activities.
5. Domain name disputes for the .ua domain are not covered.
6. The Customs keeps operating but focuses on the rapid custom clearance of humanitarian cargo and the needs of the army.
So, the activities on counterfeit detection and suspending such goods are very rare.
7. The Ukrainian bank system keeps operating. All the official fees regarding IP objects could be paid and received by state authorities successfully.