On October 17, 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law on Amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine regarding the protection of intellectual property rights during moving goods across the customs border of Ukraine.
Thus, Ukraine has brought its legislation in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 concerning customs enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The document also defines such terms as “counterfeit goods”, “pirated goods”, “goods suspected of infringement of intellectual property rights”.
The international principle of exhaustion of intellectual property rights in Ukraine from now on granted official status. This principle has previously acted de facto in many cases, but the absence of its formalization in the legislation periodically provoked conflict situations between IPR owners and importers.
However, restrictions were left for medicines and plant protection products, which have the relevant supplementary protection certificates.
Intellectual property rights objects that may be entered into Customs Register and in cases of suspected violation of rights to which goods may be sanctioned – copyright and related rights objects, inventions, industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, plant varieties, integrated circuit designs.
Accordingly, utility model, which is a popular “patent trolling” object in Ukraine was excluded from this list.
For goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, the customs service may suspend clearance, change their labeling, or destroy it. At the same time, small batches of goods (up to three units, or weighing up to 2 kilograms), which are transported by international mail and express mail, can also be subject to destruction.
The IPR owners may enter data on intellectual property rights objects into Customs Register free of charge, and customs officers can use additional information resources to determine whether this product is counterfeit or not.