Restrictions on access to registries should not violate the rights of third parties

The criteria and mechanism for restricting access to information from state registers of intellectual property rights related to national security and defense during martial law should exclude the possibility of violating the rights of third parties.

The UNBA Committee on Civil Law and Procedure drew attention to this in its comments and proposals to the draft Law No. 11533 dated 29.08.2024 «On Amendments to the Civil Code of Ukraine and Some Other Laws of Ukraine on the Peculiarities of Providing Information from Public Electronic Registers Owned by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and Some Other Public Electronic Registers».

The authors of the initiative point out that intellectual property registers contain information on intellectual property objects (inventions, utility models, industrial designs, etc.) related to national security and defense, which are of particular interest to the enemy during military operations.

Therefore, it is proposed to provide in the laws «On Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models», «On Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs», «On Protection of Rights to Trademarks and Service Marks», «On Protection of Rights to Semiconductor Product Layouts», «On Copyright and Related Rights» that access of individuals and legal entities to the information of state registers of intellectual property rights on state registration of intellectual property rights related to national security and defense may be restricted for the period of martial law in Ukraine.

Access will be restricted at the request of the owner of a patent, industrial design, trademark certificate, or copyright holder of a work.

At the same time, the UNBA notes that the draft law does not provide for state control over whether the object in question really belongs to the areas related to national security and defense. At the same time, the definitions of «defense of Ukraine» and «national security» in the laws «On Defense of Ukraine» and «On National Security of Ukraine» are so broad that any intellectual property object can be included.

Thus, an unscrupulous owner of an intellectual property object may conceal the fact of registration of rights to the object in order to avoid its division or division of income that he or she will receive from its use and to which other participants in civil relations, such as the company where the person works, the other spouse, or co-authors, will be entitled.

The UNBA Committee is convinced that this risk requires more detailed regulatory and legal regulation in order to prevent violation of the rights of third parties.