Ukraine's parliament passes long-awaited
intellectual property law concerning optical discs

July 6, 2005

The Ukrainian Rada (parliament) ratified a package of changes to its legislation on optical discs today, taking a major step toward implementation of laws required for accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Two-hundred sixty-one deputies voted in favor of the proposed changes to the "Draft Law on Changes to Certain Laws of Ukraine (regarding implementation of legislation on TRIPS/WTO requirements)", while 44 voted against, and 67 abstained. Similar bills previously introduced on May 31, 2005 and June 23, 2005 failed to pass, receiving only 209 and 215 votes respectively.

The legislation puts in place critical changes to the criminal code in the law on licensing detailing certain kinds of economic activities, including the regulation of the manufacturing, exporting and importing of laser disk systems.

The author of the legislation, Sergey Osika, a member of United Ukraine (Edina Ukraina), stated that the legislation will set forth WTO-accepted standards of international intellectual property rights (IPR) in Ukraine as described by the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. The law will also eliminate the contradictions in current laws dealing with the production, exporting, and importing of laser disc reading systems.

Passage of the law should lead to the removal of sanctions imposed by the United States against Ukraine and improve Ukraine's chances of receiving "market economy" status by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"The newly passed piece of legislation will bring Ukraine's intellectual property legislation in line with TRIPS standards and may be a significant step forward for Ukraine on its WTO accession aspirations," said Serhiy Movchan, Ukraine's representative of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR). "President Victor Yuschenko has made WTO accession for Ukraine by the end of October 2005 a major government priority."