Twinning with Ukraine on Industrial and Intellectual Property

In May 2014, the EU, the International and Latin American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) and the Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) signed a contract to set up Twinning with Ukraine on Industrial and Intellectual Property, called ‘Strengthening the protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property rights in Ukraine’.

Twinning is an initiative of the European Commission, originally designed to assist candidate countries to acquire the skills and experience needed to adopt, apply and enforce European Union (EU) legislation.

SPTO leadership
The SPTO leads, coordinates and carries out most of the activities, in collaboration with the DKPTO. The beneficiary of this activity is the State Department for Intellectual Property of Ukraine (SIPSU).

The position of resident councillor for Twinning is held by a Spanish member of the FIIAPP, this being a public institution chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Spain which works in the field of international cooperation and is accredited by the European Commission. It is thus able to directly manage and implement EU cooperation funds through so-called delegated cooperation.

Work is going ahead and will proceed until 31 December 2015, although possible expansion of the object and scope of the project is currently being studied at the request of the Ukrainian government.

The project activities are structured around the following main components:

1. Approximation of the Ukrainian legislation to that of the EU regarding the enforcement of Industrial and Intellectual Property rights.
2. Improved institutional capacity for the SIPSU.
3. Stronger powers and professional skills for agents involved in the enforcement of legislation (State inspectors, examiners, judges, Customs agents).

Launch
The project was officially launched on 29 May 2014 in the SIPSU offices (Kiev) in the presence of the Head of the EU Delegation in Ukraine Jan Tombinski, the Spanish Ambassador to Ukraine, Gerardo Burgallo, representatives from the SPTO and the DKPTO and experts from public and judicial bodies in Ukraine involved in implementation of the project. Also present were members of enterprises and right-holder associations as well as representatives from the media.

After the launch, the activities began, for which purpose SPTO experts travelled to Kiev. So far, eight members have participated from various departments. The activities performed to date include training seminars for examiners of patents, trademarks and designs, seminars on IP right observance for Customs officials, prosecutors and police, recommendations on how to bring Ukrainian legislation on IP in line with that of the EU, and a recent study visit in which ten SIPSU officials visited the SPTO and, subsequently, the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante.

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