CLDP and the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine (SIPSU) in collaboration with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), held a two day workshop in order to investigate, clarify and eliminate the legislative and regulatory impediments to achieving the necessary IP protection on the Internet in Ukraine.  The participants of the workshop included government representatives and representatives of IP right holders, as well as lawmakers, regulators, judges, lawyers and other stakeholders.

CLDP advisors - Dr. Elena Blobel, Senior Legal Advisor, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Frederic Hirsch, Principal, Hirsch IP Solutions, worked closely with the EU Twining Project’s advisors - Dr. Mihály Ficsor, President, Hungarian Copyright Experts Council and Kenneth Wright, Principal Advisor, Danish Patent and Trademark Office, to present international principles underlying the protection of IP on the internet in order to assist the drafting of requisite language to enable the necessary protection.  Working together with their Ukrainian counterparts - Olexiy Ardanov, Chief Expert, SIPSU, Ignat Berezhny, Director, Ukrainian Association of the Music Industry, and Volodymyr Iling, Head, Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association, the advisors led the workshop to recommend changes to the text of Ukrainian draft anti-piracy law.

The recommendations included, inter alia, the following:

• Establishment of joint and several liability by non-complying website owner, hosting service provider or Internet access provider.  

• Rights owners will be civilly liable for bad faith notice seeking removal of infringing content.

• In the case of a non-responsive hosting service provider, a rights owner may seek action from an Internet access provider in blocking access to a non-compliant website.

The full set of recommendations from the workshop will be incorporated into the latest draft and the CLDP and EU advisors will reconvene at the end of September 2014 to develop the actual text of the draft law for further submission to the Supreme Rada.  This legislation once adopted, will form the legal framework for a more effective and efficient protection of IP rights on the Internet in Ukraine.