Ukrainian public authorities and non-governmental organizations continue fighting against production and trading of counterfeit products in the territory of Ukraine.
Thus, during the last year the state intellectual property inspectors of the State Department of Intellectual Property conducted 487 inspections of the entities using in their activity objects of the intellectual property right in all the regions of Ukraine. Distributors of counterfeit audiovisual works, phonograms, software programs, as well as the undertakings using the objects of copyright and related rights in the public sphere and infringing the legislation at that were among such the entities. As a result of the inspections the inspectors made up and transferred to the court 310 protocols of administrative infraction, confiscated more than 380 000 items of counterfeit products for an overall amount of more than 500000 Euro, 104 criminal cases were opened concerning infringement of the intellectual property rights.
Recently the actions of unlawful usage of the symbols of EURO-2012 have become more frequent in Ukraine. According to the information from the State Customs Service, in August, 2011 800 footballs and 600 mini footballs containing the symbol of EURO-2012 being the object of the intellectual property right of UEFA were sent from Germany to the address of a well-known enterprise in Ukraine. As any usage of the trademark EURO-2012 without the consent of UEFA is prohibited the customs officers stopped consignment processing and informed the representatives of the trademark holder in Ukraine who confirmed unlawful usage of the championship symbol.
Also in summer 2011 the customs officers stopped customs processing of fridgie consignment containing the trademark EURO-2012. The products were sent to the address of an individual in Ukraine.
According to the information of the head of the EURO-2012 local organizing committee Markiyan Lubkivsky as of the middle of August 2011 about 100 infringement actions of the intellectual property rights of UEFA were fixed in Ukraine and the measures were taken against the infringers. State Department of Intellectual Property refused registration of 40 trademark and industrial design applications which infringe the intellectual property rights of UEFA. The State Customs Service stopped 10 consignments of counterfeit products infringing the intellectual property rights of UEFA. Criminal cases were opened concerning unlawful trading of such the counterfeit products in the shops, in particular through the Internet network. A lot of infringement actions were stopped upon receiving the warning letters by infringers from the UEFA legal representatives. For the period of conducting the championship in Ukraine UEFA intends to create the teams which will actively monitor infringement of the intellectual property rights of UEFA in the cities where EURO-2012 will take place and inform the law-enforcement authorities of such infringement actions.
Also in the official web-portal of State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine the section “Legislative acts and methodical publications in respect of protection of intellectual property rights of UEFA” was created in the frames of preparation for EURO-2012(so far in Ukrainian only).
Information source: http://www.intelvlas.com.ua/2011-05-20-15-21-12/12313-novi-ukrajinski-pirati.html
Contributed by:
ElMar-IP Agency
www.elmar-ip.com
