Intellectual Property Assignment in Ukraine

Ownership of intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks, may be assigned. In Ukraine assignment of intellectual property is regulated by Civil Code and specialized Laws.

According to Ukrainian legislation we can define the following types of assignment agreements:
- license for usage of intellectual property;
- licensing contract;
- agreement about creation on order and usage of intellectual property object;
- agreement about transaction of exclusive tangible intellectual property rights;
- other agreements about disposal of intellectual property rights.

To learn more about types of assignment in Ukraine we shall briefly consider them.

License for usage of intellectual property is a written power, given by a person, that has a unique right to permit a usage of the intellectual property object (grantor of license) to another person (grantee of license). Such action gives a right to grantor of license to use this intellectual property object in a particular field. Such license could be issued as a certain document or it could be a part of a licensing contract. Depending on a type of a license, grantee of license may have or may have not a right to give this license to third persons for usage.

Licensing contract is a contract under which a person, that has a unique right to permit a usage of intellectual property object (grantor of license) gives a permission to another person (grantee of license) to use this object on mutual consent. Licensing contract must be writing and its registration in State Service of Intellectual Property is not required.

Under agreement about creation on order and usage of intellectual property object one party (creator - writer, artist etc) is obliged to create an object of intellectual property according to demands of another party (client) within established period. Such agreement should state ways and conditions of intellectual property object usage by a client.

According to assignment agreement of exclusive tangible intellectual property rights one party that enjoys exclusive tangible property rights transfers to another party partially or entirely these rights on conditions provided by a contract. However, provisions of a contract that worsen a condition of a creator of an object or his successors, make this contract void.

According to Ukrainian legislation all assignment agreements should be in writing. All assignment contracts should be registrated in State Service of Intellectual Property. Time frame of such registration is about 2-2 1/2 months. An assignment contract can be made in any language, however its’ registration in State Service requires Ukrainian translation. Furthermore, notarization of such agreements is not required.

If you are going to come in for a certificate or a license, you should assure that it is valid. Moreover, Ukrainian legislation foresees particulate assignment of a trademark, utility model, invention and design invention.