New CiSEP training cycle on Intellectual Property Rights in Ukraine
New CiSEP Level B trainings for Ukrainian change-makers and civil society is dedicated to Chapter 9 “Intellectual Property” of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). First out of four workshops took place in December in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s ratification of the TRIPS Agreement before joining the World Trade Organization in 2008 has introduced worldwide Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) standards to the country’s legislation. Nevertheless, IPR protection is still a weak spot for the country, and it is criticized by the EU and other international organizations for its nontransparent system of collective management organizations, lack of effective IPR enforcement and widespread use of unlicensed software.
It is therefore not surprising that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement dedicates a full chapter on IPR in the DCFTA part of the Agreement. Since this problematic but important field has up to date enjoyed little engagement from the Ukrainian civil society, the Capacity Development Ukraine Team of the Institute for European Politics (Berlin) together with Polissya Foundation for International and Regional Studies (Chernihiv) decided to dedicate the next training series within the Civic School for Sound EU Practice (CiSEP) to this topic.
The first out of four workshops took place between 18–20 December in Kyiv and was implemented by IEP project managers Martin Stein and Grzegorz Szymanowski. 22 fellows making up the group with different relevant backgrounds (lawyers, activists and journalists among them) studied relevant EU legislation on IPR with an official from one of the Member States, were familiarized with some public awareness campaigns from Ukraine and got an overview of the state of implementation of the DCFTA provisions into Ukrainian legislation.
The workshop marks the next Level in the multilevel CiSEP-training program. The next workshop will be held in Kyiv at the end of January and will focus on Copyright and institutions.
The Civic School for Sound EU Practice (CiSEP) is a training programme for active citizens and change-makers in Ukraine. It creates a network of Association Agreement specialists with the common goal of enhancing Ukraine’s European integration. CiSEP is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.
