In the field of intellectual property, on October 13, 2022, a significant event took place – the antimonopoly body finally paid attention to the numerous appeals of patent attorneys and other business entities that provide trademark registration services, and conducted an audit of the activities of Ukrpatent regarding violations of the legislation on the protection of economic competition
Based on the results of the study of paid services provided by Ukrpatent, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine adopted recommendations according to which our patent office should provide free public access to information about all, without exception, applications for trademarks. In particular, Ukrpatent is recommended to publish applications for which the filing fee has not yet been paid, and the so-called “priority certificate” has not yet been sent to the applicant. As indicated by the AMCU, the volume of information on trademark applications should be sufficient for users to search by signs of identity/similarity and should be presented in a form that provides the possibility of selection according to the specified criteria.
The fact is that Ukrpatent currently provides paid search services with the provision of a report on identical or similar marks using its own internal information base, part of which data is restricted to the general public.
For example, a patent attorney who professionally deals with the registration of trademarks in Ukraine, by agreement with the client, usually conducts a preliminary search in the Special Information System of Ukrpatent. But he can get complete information about identical or similar signs only by ordering the corresponding paid service from Ukrpatent.
Thus, firstly, similar services of other business entities – patent law companies or patent attorneys – are less competitive and attractive to consumers, because they search for the identity and similarity of signs without having complete information about the submitted applications. As a result, the recipients of such services may suffer, having received a refusal to register a trademark precisely because of its identity or similarity to a trademark that was previously applied for registration. According to the antimonopoly body, this leads to a distortion of competition in the market for the provision of such services.
Secondly, as noted by patent attorneys and law firms themselves, this practice leads to a significant increase in costs associated with trademark registration.
The Antimonopoly Committee drew attention to the fact that, in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, data on application materials from the date of their receipt to Ukrpatent and before the publication of information about them are not considered confidential information. As a result, the AMCU considers the actions of Ukrpatent to restrict access to this information to be a violation of antimonopoly legislation, to eliminate which the specified recommendations were provided.
We would like to remind you that the recommendations of the Antimonopoly Committee are mandatory for consideration by the entity within the established two-month period, and ignoring such acts may lead to the opening of proceedings against the state enterprise.
Therefore, we are eagerly awaiting a response from Ukrpatent and the opening of full access to all trademarks applied for registration in Ukraine.
Sources:
- https://amcu.gov.ua/news/dostup-do-informaciyi-pro-totozhni-ta-shozhi-poznachennya-amku-nadav-rekomendaciyi-ukrpatentu?v=63491ace61fb0
- https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2210-14#Text
- https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/3689-12