Specialized IP Court as a Part of Ukrainian Justice Reforms

The widespread justice reform is proceeded in Ukraine. One of its important directions is to create High Court on Intellectual Property. Recently, the President of Ukraine has signed the Decree “On the establishment of a High Court on Intellectual Property”, and High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and State Judicial Administration has declared that IP court would consist of 21 judges. The following stage of court formation has come as the contest to hold the post of a judge has already been announced. The contest consists of several stages: the examination of documents for compliance with formal requirements, the written qualification examination, the psychological testing and the interview.

The largest legal public organization - Ukrainian Bar Association together with the EU-funded Project “Support to Justice Sector Reforms in Ukraine” and High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine started the set of events aimed at supporting the process of formation of High Court on Intellectual Property and discussing the debating points of court activity.

The first roundtable took place in Kyiv, where issues of competitive selection of judges to the High Court on Intellectual Property were raised. The discussion generated lots of interests that show the desire of legal public to know more about the peculiarities of IP court formation.

 According to the head of State Judicial Administration Zenoviy Kholodnyuk the 21 vacancies is only the beginning. When the court start operating, judges’ workload will be analyzed and the decision about the number of judges will be made.

The head of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine Sergey Koziakov noted that the candidate have to prepare documents seriously and to pay attention to trivial matters, to be ready with the rules of law and practice, and not prepare for psychological testing. Mr. Koziakov assured that the activity of the commission would be as transparent as possible, and the evaluation procedure would be aimed at eliminating the subjective factors.

In turn, Dovidas Vitkauskas, head of EU-funded Project “Support to Justice Sector Reforms in Ukraine”, said that the creation of IP court is one of the most important justice reforms in Ukraine. He is going to support IP court formation to the best of his ability.

Summing up the moderator of the event Yaroslav Ognevyuk, board member of UBA (partner of Doubinsky & Osharova) called on IP specialists to participate in the contest. Whether the candidates succeed or not, they will gain colossal experience. Ukrainian Bar Association presumes unbiased and fair contest and will maximally assists to it.

The creation and formation of High Court on Intellectual Property in Ukraine comply with the government’s plans to improve justice level, business climate and the investment attractiveness of the economy.

See also