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News

High qualification and high responsibility

Marina Vulikh has been acknowledged by Best Lawyers

Marina Vulikh, the patent attorney of Vulikh & Vulikh, has been included in the 12th edition of The Best Lawyers in Ukraine for her work in Intellectual Property Law. Moreover, she was also recognized as one of the 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” award recipients for her achievements in Intellectual Property Law in Kharkiv. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and community is honored with a “Lawyer of the Year” award.

This information has been released publicly on June 08, 2021 and is now available at the Best Lawyers website at the link www.bestlawyers.com

14.06.2021

Direct national phase entry in Italy under PCT procedure

Direct Italian national phase entry is made possible for patent applications filed beginning from 1st July 2020.

The term of the entry is 30 months from the international filing date or priority date.

If the term for entry is missed, the grace period of two months is provided for under Art. 192 of the Italian IP Code.

In order to proceed with the Italian national phase entry, the Applicant is to file a corresponding request and translation of the published international application into Italian as well as amendments to the application, if any.

In case the number of patent claims exceeds 10, the Applicant is to pay an additional fee involved with excess claims.

19.01.2021

Marina Vulikh has been acknowledged by Best Lawyers. Business Edition

Marina Vulikh, the patent attorney of Vulikh & Vulikh, has been included in the 5th annual edition of Best Lawyers. Business Edition. The edition published a list of more than 40,000 lawyers from 28 countries, who were selected among their colleagues for their high professionalism and exceptional achievements in the field of jurisprudence.
This information has been released publicly on October 02, 2020 and is now available at the Best Lawyers website at the link www.bestlawyers.com.

05.10.2020

Changes to the Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of IP

On July 21, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Bills Nos. 2258 and 2259 relating to strengthening protection of rights for trademarks and industrial designs, patent trolling control, as well as to reforming patent legislation.
Among the most significant changes for industrial designs are additional criterion of “individual character”, validity term up to 25 years, change of the protection document type, and possibility of pre-trial cancellation of the certificate in the Chamber of Appeals.
For patents for inventions and utility models, they are motivated opposition filing as to application within 6 months after publication date, as well as patent rights invalidation by administrative procedure.

23.07.2020

Marina Vulikh has been acknowledged  by Best Lawyers

Marina Vulikh, the patent attorney of Vulikh & Vulikh, has been selected for inclusion in the 11th Edition of The Best Lawyers in Ukraine. This information has been released publicly and is now available at the Best Lawyers website at the link https://www.bestlawyers.com/current-edition/Ukraine

09.06.2020

BREXIT: what should owners of IP objects expect?

On January 31, 2020, the UK left the European Union, what means that as from February 1, 2020, the transition period has begun for the country, which, according to preliminary agreements, will last until December 31, 2020.

During this period, the UK will act in accordance with the EU law and will develop new acts and agreements for the protection of IP.

Among the intellectual property objects that Brexit will not affect are inventions and copyright.

Read more…

04.02.2020

New version of the 11th edition of ICGS

On January 1, 2020, the new version of the International Classification of Goods and Services entered into force.

More than 300 amendments were made, 208 new formulations added, titles of seven classes and explanatory notes of ten classes underwent changes. The Ukrainian-language text of the ICGS was brought in line with the norms of modern Ukrainian lexis and orthography. Overall, the Ukrainian-language version of the classification underwent more than 600 changes.

06.01.2020

Signing of Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation Program for 2020-2021 between the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and WIPO

As part of the 59th series of meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO in Geneva, a meeting was organized between Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, and Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General. The key issue of discussion was the need for further development of the system of IP legal protection in Ukraine, taking into account modern global practices. In particular, it is planned to create a National Intellectual Property Center, as well as to develop a network of Technology and Innovation Support Centers. As a result of negotiations, the Ministry of Economy and WIPO signed a Memorandum of Understanding, as well as a Cooperation Program for 2020-2021.

03.10.2019

One step closer to EU standards: Bill No. 1230 on the Protection of IP Rights at the customs border of Ukraine

Bill No. 1230 adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the first reading aims to improve the level of preventing crossing Ukrainian custom border by goods that violate IP rights. The bill provides for amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine, e.g. enlarging the list of IP rights objects, cases of taking measures related to the suspension of customs clearance of goods suspected in violating IP rights, etc.

24.09.2019

Official fees for registration of IP rights in Ukraine are increased

According to the Resolution No. 496 signed and published by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on June 12, 2019 official fees are significantly increased as from July 19, 2019. This increase concerns all objects of IP and all proceeding and registration stages thereof – from filing applications to maintaining patents and renewal of trademark registrations.

19.07.2019

Marina Vulikh has been acknowledged  by Best Lawyers

Marina Vulikh, the patent attorney of Vulikh & Vulikh, has been selected for inclusion in the 10th Edition of The Best Lawyers in Ukraine. This information has been released publicly and is now available at the Best Lawyers website.

24.05.2019

Colour as a trademark: to use or not to use?

As vision is one of the main types of perception, providers of goods and services strongly rely on colours in their logos, packaging, advertising to make their products stand out among those of other competitors.

And while the majority resorts to the incorporation of colour into their word, device or combined trademarks, others brave non-conventional colour trademarks which still cause debates between IP practitioners as to their distinctive character. Another reason for disputes is a possible threat to fair competition as there is a risk of colour depletion as well as incessant litigations if some trademark owners decide to monopolize certain colours for their goods and services

Read more…

19.02.2021

USPTO: The end of the 12-year First Action Interview Pilot Program

As from January 15, 2021, USPTO has terminated First Action Interview Pilot Program. Under the said Program, prior to the first Office action on the merits, an applicant could have requested a first action interview. Upon such a request, the examiner conducted a prior art search and furnished the applicant with citation of the relevant prior art and existing objections. After scheduling the interview and providing amendments and/or arguments from the applicant’s side, the interview took place, during which the Parties could discuss the obtained information in more detail. If no agreement was reached, the applicant obtained a first interview Office action.

According to the USPTO, the main reason for the program discontinuation is a low rate of actual usage (0.2%).

28.01.2021

WIPO Lex-Judgements, a new database of leading judicial IP-related decisions

Recognizing a growing demand for a resource providing judges as well as IP professionals with actual IP-related cases and decisions with regard thereto, WIPO launched a new database WIPO Lex-Judgements. The cases are collected to help in settling common issues in IP disputes as they may be used as precedents or at least shed some light on possible interpretations of letter of the law and best IP solutions.
WIPO Lex-Judgements provides leading judicial decisions carefully selected by the courts or other relevant authorities of the member countries. The database contains searchable details of all judgements, including subject matter, relevant legislation, summary, etc. as well as the full text of the document.
The database is built on more than 400 documents from 10 member countries, with Australia, Brazil, China, Republic of Korea, and Spain being some of them, and will be constantly expanded in the course of time.

28.09.2020

Vienna Classification Assistant – a new assistant provided by WIPO

Vienna Classification Assistant, a free new tool provided by WIPO, incorporates elements of artificial intelligence and is designed to further facilitate the classification of trademark images.
To use the tool, one needs to add an image in JPG/JPEG or PNG format to the appropriate field, thereafter the system will provide a list of 29 basic categories with an indication of the most relevant ones. Next, the user can select auxiliary options and get the classification result.

27.08.2020

Please welcome WIPO PROOF, an all-new online business service

On May 27, 2020, WIPO introduced WIPO PROOF, a new member of its IP services system that provides its users with a possibility of obtaining tamper-proof evidence of the existence of a digital file at a specific moment in time.

In the age of a digital community, a large amount of data files is disseminated via various channels causing such files to become subject to the risk of misuse and misappropriation.

WIPO PROOF may assist you with mitigation of such risks, by providing date- and time-stamped fingerprint of your digital file, thus taking on the role of some kind of a digital notary. 

Read more…

28.05.2020

Dear clients, colleagues and friends!

First of all, we wish you health and well-being.

In March 2020, the Ukrainian government has provided a number of preventive steps  necessary to stop the spreading of the COVID-19 virus.

Following  this way, the team of VULIKH & VULIKH would like to assure you that we take all our best to protect the health of our company staff and our style of work.

We carefully monitor the situation in the country and the whole world, keeping an eye on the work of the Patent Office of Ukraine and other countries.

 As always, we are ready to provide you with a full range of services in the field of intellectual property and other areas of law, including the field of corporate and commercial law, investments, cross-border transactions, taxation and data protection.

23.03.2020

The best inventions of 2019 according to Time Magazine

 

It is customary to sum up the results at the end of the year, and thus getting to know some of the best world inventions of 2019 is an ideal way to do this.

Robot teacher “Roybi Robot”

Now in case of difficulties with the upbringing and education of your child, you can always turn to a real robot. Roybi Robot helps children of age 3 to 7 learn the language and develop their abilities in mathematics, technology and engineering.

Read more…

27.12.2019

WIPO seminar “PCT and the Madrid Trademark Registration System”

On the initiative of WIPO, the National Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, on November 14, 2019, the WIPO seminar “PCT and the Madrid Trademark Registration System” was organized at the Synergy Science Park, which was attended by employees of our company.

During the first part of the event, Mr. Benoît Apercé provided useful information on the peculiarities of the use of the Madrid trademark registration system. Not only were the new countries recalled that joined the Madrid system in 2019 (Canada, Brazil, Malaysia), but also potential participants, in particular South Africa, Pakistan, Malta.

Read more…

15.11.2019

Keeping up with EU law: upgrade of legal protection of geographical indications in Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving Legal Protection of Geographical Indications”. Accordingly, certain terms have received new definitions, conditions of protection granting and grounds for refusal to grant geographical indications protection have been corrected, and the like.

23.09.2019

New WIPO standards ST.3, ST.26, ST.27, ST.37 and ST.60 are adopted

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published the report of the seventh session of the WIPO Standards Committee. The Committee session was held from 1 to 5 July 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Following the discussions, new versions of the WIPO Standards ST.3, ST.26, ST.27, ST.37 and ST.60 were adopted. The report is available at the link.

09.09.2019