Odessa businessmen will be able to obtain licenses for using music works from a catalogue of a government agency, “Ukrainian Agency of Copyrights and Allied Rights” (UACAR) at a unified permit obtaining centre.
The UACAR experts believe that the presence of governmental representatives at the permit obtaining centre with regard to copyrights protection in Ukraine is not enough. “The next step must be a decision by Odessa City Council for a mandatory presence of our agreement and permit in a list of documents necessary for obtaining a general permit for running a business in which music works are to be used (night clubs, restaurants, shopping and leisure centres)”, says Natalya Lysenko, a deputy director of the UACAR regional office in Odessa.
The government establishment “Ukrainian Agency of Copyrights and Allied Rights” in Ukraine represents over 4 thousand domestic and more than 2,5 million foreign authors. The Agency manages the biggest catalogue in Ukraine and charges all users (tele- and radio companies, bars and restaurants, night clubs, concerts organizers) an author’s bonus for musical works usage. The permit obtaining centre is run as a “unified window” where businessmen may obtain all necessary permits for running their business at one place.
Fashion house Gucci fears Geometria.ru competition.
Geometria.ru Project Manager Alexandr Sokolov received formal notice from Salans, an international law firm, through his patent attorney Elena Solov’eva (Patent Attorneys Agency “Ars-Patent”). Salans lawyer and patent attorney D.E. Voevodin, qualified in the Russian Federation, said that he represented his client – Gucci Company (GUCCIO GUCCI S.P.A) and notified the owner of GEOMETRIA trademark about the need to use the GEOMETRIA trademark correctly.
Specifically, he claimed that “usage of the stylized element in the form of a Latin letter “G” without the word “Geometria” may result in a significant alteration of the trademark.. A consumer will perceive it as an independent symbol…” Mr. Voevodin recalled that Gucci Company had been using the stylized image of the letter “G” for many years for a large range of goods and expressed his concern that consumers would associate a similar trademark with a certain manufacturer which did not reflect the facts and would ultimately result in misleading a consumer.
Source:www.lawmix.ru
28.08.2008
Ukraine suffers losses in the intellectual property rights area
According to Vladimir Polohalo, head of a committee of the Verhovna Rada of Ukraine on Science and Education matters, in the course of privatization of governmental enterprises of Ukraine, their cost was understated by 50%-80% on average because intellectual property was not taken into account while setting a price. Ukraine has been losing 2 billion US dollars each month for 17 years of independence.
The head of the committee of the Verhovna Rada of Ukraine also pointed out that the main reason the situation occurred was that only 1% of intellectual property of net assets value of enterprises was taken into account while in Europe this number reached 50% to 85%.
“A volume of unrecorded assets of enterprises which are still in state ownership, around 20% of all, amounts to $200-250$ billions. The cost of enterprises was understated by 50-80% because intangible assets (intellectual property) were not taken into account. The experts calculated that Ukraine had been losing 2 billion US dollars every month for 17 years”, said Polohalo.
Source: delo.ua
27.07.2008
A name was stolen from Dnipropetrovsk’s “Oleina”
One of Kyiv’s district courts awarded a trademark to a certain private entrepreneur – and a Dnipropetrovsk’s factory was ordered to get itself renamed.
What cheek! Serhiy Yanchenko, a citizen of Ukraine, filed an application with a government establishment “Ukrainian Institute of Industrial Property” (“Ukrpatent”) to register a trademark “OLEINA” for industrial and edible oils production in August 2006, Dnipro.Info informs, according to “Business 5”. On 5 October 2006 “Ukrpatent” told the applicant that such commercial name had been already registered by OLEINA S.A. and also “hinted” that production of industrial and edible oils under an analogous name might mislead consumers.
On 4 July 2007, Mr.Yanchenko was definitively refused the mentioned trademark registered under his name. However, on 2 November 2007 Solomenskyy district court of Kyiv canceled the decision taken in July by “Ukrpatent” and on 11 March 2008 a State Department of Intellectual Property issued the mentioned citizen a certificate of registration of title on usage the trademark “OLEYNA” under his name for class 1 and 35 (production and sale of industrial oils and oils for food preservation, etc.). On 27 March 2008, the happy owner of the certificate entered into a licensing agreement of assignment of rights for a unique usage of the obtained by court decision trademark to a private enterprise “Z-D”.
On 8 April “Z-D” filed a claim in the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk region, demanding a CJSC “Dnipropetrovskyy Oil Extract Factory”, 94% of shares of which belonged to “Bunge Ukraine” and which was the manufacturer of the bottled vegetable oil under this trademark, to dismantle a sign hanging on the front of the building. On 9 April, the court by its decision forbade the factory from “using the advertising sign in the form of 6 letters “OLEINA” placed on its building by cutting power supply off the advertising device and covering it by any means in such a way as to prevent the sign from being seen from any side.”
A zealous “Z-D” starting from May began to attack “Dnipropetrovskyy Oil Extract Factory” indirectly, through its business partners, demanding trading networks neither promote nor sell oil under the trademark “OLEINA”. In particular, as was confirmed at the Economic Court of Kyiv, in May 2008 the private enterprise filed a claim with a similar demand against LLC “Metro Cash and Carry Ukraine”, LLC “Omega”, a private enterprise “REARDY” and in June -against “Atb-market”, “Fozzy Group” and CJSC “Xtrading”. Information about similar claims was confirmed by “ATB” Corporation and CJSC “Xtrading”. (CJSC’s representatives also said that consideration of the case 2/39308 at the suit of “Z-D” was commenced).
Meanwhile, these trading companies continue to sell “OLEINA” products and do not plan to stop. “We see no legal grounds for ceasing the sale of sunflower oil of this trademark at “Atb-market” network”, said Hanna Lichman, a head of “Atb” PR department. An employee of CJSC “Xtrading” who wished to remain unnamed also pointed out : “We have a great turnover thanks to the Dnipropetrovsk Oil Extract Factory and we intend to continue to work with it until a court delivers its judgment”.
The representatives of “Bunge” also claim that there are no extraordinary changes in the volume of sales and the losses incurred by the company - are additional legal services disbursements. “If bans are placed on use of “Oleina” to market sunflower oil, as the representatives of the private enterprise “Z-D” demand, than the sales will be discontinued. A scope of losses will be determined by a number of bans and how powerful the networks to which the bans are applied are. In general, the restriction of sales may result in an increase of the prime cost of the product, occurrence of shortage of goods and rise of retail price”, suspects Myhajlo Sokolov, a spokesman of “Bunge Ukraine”.
A hearing of a case against Procter&Gamble by Olena Tsezarivna Chukovska, a granddaughter of a famous children’s book writer, was held at a Moscow Basmannyy court.
Procter&Gamble’s representatives claimed that their wash basin had nothing to do with Moydodyr. However, facts proved the opposite. Pursuant to an amendment to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation dated January 1, 2008, a character of a story is as much a copyright object as a story itself. That is why in order to use it, it is necessary to obtain the legal consent of the title holder. Volodym Popov, who has been running the affairs of Korney Chukovskyy’s heiress, said that Procter&Gamble’s representatives signed a copyright agreement with Olena Chukovska in 1997 pursuant to which the company started to transfer money directly to her account. However, the company stopped making payments some time ago.
The situation grew more complicated by the fact that Olena Tsesarivna saved no copy of the agreement dated 1997. Myhaylo Rodionov, a representative of the Company, claimed at the court hearing that Procter&Gamble possessed no such Agreement either and therefore it was doubtful that it had ever been entered into.
The arguments of the applicants are based on the facts that Chukovskyy described the character very clearly. It is no coincidence that many artists including Ivan Pertovych Ivanov-Vano in the cartoon, portrayed the same type of character: with a tap for a nose, towels for hands and with a bowel on the head. Myhaylo Radionov, the respondent’s representative objected to it saying that neither in advertising nor on packages the wash basin was called Moydodyr or the text of the story was used. The next court session is to take place on 18 August of this year, at which the advertising production company is to present an account.
Sweden: Espionage at the governmental level 01.07.2008
A new Act, passed in the Swedish Parliament last week, is a controversial piece of legislation.It allows governmental bodies to track traffic and phone calls which “cross” the Swedish border without obtaining a bench warrant.It includes emails, mobile phone calls, foreign Internet website exploration, fax usage, SMS messages.Furthermore, according to the regulations of the new law, the Government will have the right to instruct the monitoring companies what and how to bug and spy.
“Upon wild blog activity and street protests, the news has finally started to get coverage by large Swedish media, points out an Internet publication Slashdot, what is very likely to result in large street demonstrations.People are very surprised that such a bill didn’t get due press coverage until the last moment, the voting itself”.
The situation could not help attracting ThePirateBay’s attention.The world’s number one pirate site, a staunch defender of free content access, could not ignore the process.“We were asked by many people about our next steps,” writes Peter Sunder, the tracker’s administrator, “…well, we’ve got a lot on our mind.We’ve got to use our best endeavours to fight the law”.The tracker is about to start SSL encoding the process of logging ontothewebsite. Moreover,, the administration is ready to provide free consultation on how to encode net sessions.
The Swedish government points out that the new bill’s introduction will significantly simplify the process of locating pirates.Although the new act is aimed at so called “protection” of country information resources, we can’t help to admit that large sound recording companies are gaining a lot from its introduction.After all, a separate clause is dedicated to Swedish ThePirateBay in the annual black list, where the US government put the most persistent infringers.How will the new act influence ThePirateBay? How will simple users react to it? We will know very soon.
Law-abiding Internet 30.06.2008
Great Britain is following the example of the French government and is joining the campaign against peer-to-peer networks.
As you remember, a piracy fighting plan developed by French intellectual property defenders was surrounded by brisk discussions this winter.It was called “three warnings and offline”.It is based on a provider’s assistance in catching pirates-infringers.Such assistance includes filtration and tracking of user activity, that could be regarded as breach of freedom of individual rights.According to the plan, the copyright infringer is warned for the first time.If he is caught downloading unlicensed stuff for the second time, his account is very likely to be removed or freezed for a long time.If he is caught for the third time, a provider will have to disconnect the pirate from the net.It is not surprising that such policy was supported neither by users nor by providers, disgruntled by the shift of responsibility.Nonetheless, Great Britain is ready to use the developments and tactics of the French government in the very near future.
“If sound recording labels and providers can’t reach an agreement, it is very likely that the British Government will consider the matter in Parliament, writes Eric Bengeman, Ars Technica commentator, which may lead to an Act, similar to “three warnings and offline”, being passed”.
“An agreement between market representatives, sound recording companies and providers is better than a governmental decree, claims Internet Service Providers Association representatives, who are being under pressure from sound recording companies, as it leaves us the opportunity to exercise some sort of control, but one is helpless when government is involved.”
British providers and sound recording industry representatives have entered into negotiations.Discussions on the issue were held at an annual conference London Calling last week, the results of which have not yet been published.In any case, British users are very likely to think twice before logging on to peer-to-peer network sites, as the invisible eye of the law will politely but firmly punish any law violation by denying the right to access the Internet.
The Warner Bros. admits its fault 09.06.2008
More new details have been revealed in the case against The Pirate Bay, the most notorious pirate websitein existence today.Warner Bros., a company which launched a legal action against The Pirate Bay accusing it of overt infringement of copyrights and allied rights, made a surprising announcement.The company lawyers admitted that a police officer Jim Kaiser, who investigated a case for the Swedish police, was also working for Warner Bros.
The situation is quite difficult.Keiser joined the torrent-site case investigation while being a police officer, he later left his position and started officially working for Warner Bros.At that time none, except The Pirate Bay advocates, paid much attention to that.From the very beginning of the investigation, the management of the pirate site claimed that the police actions were being paid for by large right holders, sound recording corporations and companies.A couple of months later, Keiser returned to his previous place of work in the police, without giving any explanation for his odd swap of workplaces.Since then, Warner Bros. voluntarily informed a Swedish internet portal Sydsvenskan.se and Roswell, a public prosecutor, about a “misunderstanding” with Keiser.The company claimed earlier that it employed Keiser only after he left the police.It is hard to explain why its point of view changed so dramatically
Google is expected in court again
28.05.2008
A Belgian company, Copiepresse, wants to receive over USD $70 million from Google.That is how Copiepresse assessed the damage caused by the giant search engine to Belgian publishers and newspaper owners.Google is accused of displaying illegal links and using news texts.
Google is to appear in court in September of this current year.That is when it will be decided whether the giant search engine is to pay the demanded compensation to the Claimants
TorrentSpy is defeated by Hollywood 14.05.2008
Formerly famous American website TorrentSpy is obliged to pay 110 million USD to American Film Association.
A federal judge, Florence-Mary Cooper, pronounced the site guilty of copyright infringement and supporting the downloading of illegal content.TorrentSpy and its manager John Bannel are obliged to pay 30 thousand USD for each movie displayed on the website for illegal downloading, the total number of which is 3699.
“TorrentSpy’s ‘death’ is an apparent victory of some major film making companies.It shows that such websites will not be allowed to exist, that they will be constantly followed by a copyright holder’s lawsuit”, said the executive manager of the American Film Association
Persistent infringer
29.04.2008
Russia is at the top, but only of the list of the most persistent copyright infringers in the world, maintained by the US Trade Agency. This is no longer news. It is an established fact.
Neighbouring infringers are also the same. China, Argentina, Chili, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela were found using a plethora of pirated products.All these countries gained leading positions in “Special Report 301” and were included in the Primary Importance Monitoring List.Egypt, Turkey, Ukraine were also in that list, but they have improved their piracy-fighting performanceand were promoted (or demoted – depending on your viewpoint) to the simple Monitoring List to keep Canada company.
A special place in the report is designated for the infamous ThePirateBay, TheAllOfMP3 and Chinese website Baidu.The Chamber of Commerce strongly dislikes them for assisting in promotion of the illegal market of on-line piracy trade.Russia stiffened the punishment for copyright infringement and China was praised for proper policy shifts.It is not surprising that the report provoked many responses, both furious and approving.Israel, for example, was very annoyed with its listing.Taiwan regretted and was very disappointed with the results.
Michael Geyts, a Canadian jurisprudence professor and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative, says: “Giving the monitory list its due, I would like to point out that Canada does not regard it to be the official one, as it lacks reliable and impartial analysis.It fully meets the need of American industry.In the course of discussion of the problem with the Americans, we have been constantly raising the question of the absence of impartial analysis while preparing the 301 list.
Are 59 per cent of musicians pirates? 15.04.2008
A survey concerning piracy problems conducted by the Swedish company Sydsvenska provided some intriguing results. 100 Swedish musicians were asked five questions each. According to the survey, 59 per cent of musicians are engaged in the illegal act of exchanging files. With regard to the result provided, giant recording corporations claim that they suffer great losses due to illegal peer-to-peer file sharing networks are not quite convincing.The main argument of such corporations is the damage caused to the artists by such file exchange.
Meanwhile, the opinion of the artists themselves is rarely of any interest to press, unless, of course, it is a scandal.The lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, has become famous for protecting piracy.It turns out that many artists, not so often mentioned in tabloids,also have nothing against spreading their music via P2P networks.
The Sydsvenskan survey shows that file exchange is the privilege of not only the young computerized generation, but also quite respected and honoured musicians, who have made it clear that they support the idea of making free music exchange in the Internet legal.“File exchange can be considered a form of advertisement, promotion of new music”, they remark.Many musicians said that a main source of their income is not profit received from sales of their music, but deductions made by radio and TV stations.One musician pointed out that “today file exchange is great and apparent PR.If we ‘grew’ as a band, than it would become a problem”.According to the results, approximately 38 per cent in total would like file exchange to become legal.
However, that’s not how the sound recording companies see it.Some western Internet publications assumed that the artist’s opinion does not influence corporate policies, as it is they and the distributors who receive the major part of the profit from CD sales –some 16-17$ from the CD price of about $19, leaving the musicians only 2$.
Louis Vuitton wins counterfeit, patent dispute cases in China 19.03.2008 13:43
Louis Vuitton Ltd, a French luxury fashion and leather goods brand and company producer won the suit against a Chinese hotel who leased space to a shop selling counterfeit products using the Louis Vuitton's logo, as reported by AFP.
The Court in DongguanCity ordered the hotel to pay 100,000 yuan (approximately 14,000 U.S. dollars) in combined compensation with the shop manager to the French luxury producer. The court also ordered the shop and the hotel to stop selling the products and destroy any remaining counterfeit items.
Separately, Louis Vuitton Ltd has also won another suit, this one against a Chinese handbag producer in Beijing for copying its trademark design.
Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited brands in the world. Only 1 percent of all commodities with the firm's logo, attached thereon, was actually produced by Louis Vuitton.
LENTA.RU
New official fees are expected in connection with Ukraine's accession to WTO 08.02.2008 13:32
On February 5, 2008 the General Council of the World Trade Organization has approved of adopting Ukraine as a WTO member at its session in Geneva. Ukraine would have to ratify the deal by 4 July 2008 and will become a WTO member 30 days after the ratification.
New official fees concerning intellectual property protection will come into force in Ukraine from the date when Ukraine becomes a WTO member. New schedule of the official fees is approved by Resolution of Cabinet Ministers No. 1148 dated September 19, 2007.
According to the Resolution the same fees are established for all applicants and owners of IP rights regardless of the country of their residence. At present time the official fees depend on the annual GDP per capita in the country of the applicant's (owner's) residence - the countries are divided into two groups according to the World Bank statistics: countries with annual GDP less than USD 3000, and countries with annual GDP more than USD 3000.
The changes introduced by the aforesaid Resolution concern mainly the amounts of official fees. There are no other principal innovations.
The following official fee rates are established by the Resolution:
Official fees, Euro
Official filing fee for mark in black and white for each class
.additionally where the mark is in colour
135
68
Official publication fee for each class
.additionally where the mark is in colour
20
13
Official granting fee is established by Decree of Cabinet Ministers and remains the same - 200 USD.
New official fee for filing trademark application shall be paid in amount of UAH 1000 (EUR 135 approximately) for each class of goods or services, whereas current fees provide different amounts for the first class and for each class in excess one.
Besides, new Resolution cancels 10 per cent discount for filing fee, if the application is filed also on electronic carrier, and 20 per cent discount for filing fee in case if a trademark search report is filed with the application.
Though the new official fee rates are established in Ukrainian currency, residents of foreign countries can cover official fees in US Dollars or Euro according to the official exchange rate of National bank of Ukraine on the date of payment.
UEFA is worried about the IP rights 31.01.2008 13:28
On January 30, 2008 the Decree On Foundation of Coordinating Counsel Concerning Protection of IP rights of UEFA has been passed. Coordinating Council shall become supplementary body of Cabinet Ministers for a time of preparation and conducting final part of European football championship 2012 in Ukraine.
The head of the Coordinating Council is appointed Vice-premier-minister of Ukraine, and Ministry of education and science should work out project of Regulation on Coordinating Council and propositions concerning membership thereof.
