On June 2, 2016 Ukraine took the revolutionary decision on the judicial reform and the establishment of a Specialized ะกourt for Intellectual Property!
The law "On the Judicial System and Status of Judges" (bill No 4734), was adopted by the Parliament and now is awaiting for the President`s signature.
Today, specialized courts for intellectual property or patent courts exist, among others, in Austria, Germany, China, the Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, USA, Japan and Malaysia.
IP judicial cases tend to be among the most complicated legal cases, requiring from judges both specific legal background as well as (in patent cases) relevant technical training.
For IP holders the establishment of a specialized court in Ukraine is good news, because now there is a chance that cases will be considered more quickly, efficiently, and there will be the uniformity of judicial practice.
The Law provides that the new court will be set up until autumn 2017.
In addition, until spring 2017, the Supreme specialized courts will be liquidated and the Supreme Court will become a cassation instance to deal with civil, criminal, economic and administrative disputes. Moreover, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court will be established to work on the uniformity of the judicial practice. The law provides creation of one more specialized court - the Supreme Anti-corruption Court.
Judicial reform proposed by the President of Ukraine, provides other innovative changes:
- Judges will partially lose their immunity. It means that for serious or very serious crimes a judge can be arrested by law enforcement officers.
- The lifestyle of judge will be monitored to verify compliance with his standard of living according to the declared profits.
- Starting from 1 January 2020 only advocates (barristers) will be able to represent interests of individuals in courts.
- there is such a possibility envisaged by the Constitution that Ukraine can be recognized under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (The Hague, the Netherlands) though it will come into force in 2019.
Anastasiia Radomska
Associate at SYNERGY Patent Law Agency, Ukraine