Ministry of Economy launches updated WIPO ALERT procedure to protect intellectual property rights

On 10 March, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine launched an updated procedure for publishing the national list of websites violating intellectual property rights on the international platform WIPO ALERT of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The national list of IPR-infringing websites is also available on the official website of the Ministry of Economy and will continue to be updated.

“This is an important step in the fight against piracy at the national and international level. From now on, Ukraine has a mechanism to bring offenders to justice for placing advertisements on websites,” said Vitaliy Kindrativ, Deputy Minister of Economy.

In order to implement the Law of Ukraine “On Advertising”, the Ministry of Economy previously approved the procedure for the creation and maintenance of the national list of websites that infringe intellectual property rights (Order of the Ministry of Economy No. 2945 of 3 February 2024). Over the past year, the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations has begun to consider applications from holders of copyright and related rights and to adopt conclusions on the inclusion of websites in the National List.

Background

WIPO ALERT is a global secure online platform (managed by WIPO) to facilitate the fight against piracy, to which authorised participants from WIPO member states can add national lists of websites that have been identified as containing infringing content according to a defined internal procedure.

The WIPO ALERT mechanism contributes to the protection of copyright and related rights on the Internet, the protection of the business reputation of brand owners, the reduction of the number of infringing websites and the regulation of the legitimate advertising market.