September 24–October 2, the Ukrainian delegation headed by Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Mykhailo Titarchuk took part in the 58th session of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The annual series of meetings of the General Assembly of  WIPO Member States traditionally take place in the form of a meeting of its bodies, namely: the General Assembly, the Coordination Committee and the Assemblies of the member states, whose administrative functions are carried out by WIPO.

In his opening speech, Director General of WIPO Francis Gurry expressed confidence that intellectual property plays instrumental role in the modern world through lightning-fast technological progress, which in turn gives more and more value to the knowledge that creates economically and commercially important intangible assets.

During the session of the General Assembly, Mykhailo Titarchuk emphasized: "For Ukraine it is of ultimate importance to continue the fruitful dialogue with international partners, confirmation in the global system of intellectual property and, consequently, development of an effective national system of legal protection of intellectual property.

Highlighting the national interest of Ukraine in the field of intellectual property protection, the Deputy Minister noted: "Starting from 2014, Ukraine has defined its own values and consistently moves towards full integration with the European Community, including in the area of intellectual property protection. On this basis, Ukraine is now asking for its transfer to WIPO Central European and Baltic States Regional Group and hopes for the full support of this initiative by European and world representatives of the intellectual property field."

The meeting within the framework of the General Assembly with Director General of WIPO Francis Gurry became pivotal for the Ukrainian delegation. The Director General, on behalf of the organization, expressed full support for Ukraine’s intellectual property initiatives. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the World Intellectual Property Organization inked a Memorandum of Understanding and an Alternative Dispute Resolution in the field of Intellectual Property. The document will allow the introduction in Ukraine of alternative (out-of-court) dispute resolution in the field of intellectual property (mediation, arbitration, accelerated arbitration, expert opinion), reform and improve the efficiency of the Appeals Chamber of the Ministry. A special emphasis was placed on joint projects with the WIPO, which include the development of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, the introduction of intellectual property policies for universities and research institutes, the development of the network of the WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) and the WIPO Academy.

In addition to attending the sessions of the General Assembly, the Ukrainian delegation had a tight schedule of meetings with representatives of partner countries of the organization. In the course of them, memorandums of understanding with representatives of the patent offices of Chile, Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia, France, Poland, Slovakia, Peru, Mexico were signed.

The new striking stage of cooperation with the leading patent offices of the world begins with the signing of the actions plans to implement the memorandums with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the  Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. In particular, joint conferences and seminars, meetings and exchange of experience with specialists in IP; training of Ukrainian specialists under the LLM in IP program, implemented by the Patent and Trademark Office of Turkey, WIPO and Ankara University  were touched upon. During the meeting with representatives of the UK Intellectual Property Office, the possibilities of cooperation in the field of IP between the two countries were outlined.

Among the issues raised by the Ukrainian side during the meetings with international partners were the expansion of cooperation and effective use of the capabilities of the Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute (Ukrpatent), which, together with more than 20 leading patent offices in the world, acts as the International Searching Authority and the International Preliminary Examining Authority.