LIMITED TURNOVER OF ECONOMIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE FIELD OF NATIONAL SUCURITY AND DEFENSE
Authors: Олена Тверезенко  
Published: June 2021

During the execution of the state defense order (hereinafter — SDO) may be created objects of intellectual property rights (hereinafter — OIPR), namely: inventions, utility models, industrial designs and topographies of semiconductor products, as well as objects of copyright in the form of computer programs, databases, engineering, technological and software documentation, etc.The Law of Ukraine «On the State Defense Order», adopted in 1999, in no way regulates the legal relationship regarding the creation of OIPR, their use and disposal of economic intellectual property rights to such objects during the SDO. Economic rights to IPR are types of objects of civil rights. Based on the provisions of Art. 178 of the Civil Code of Ukraine objects of civil law are divided into 3 groups depending on degree of their turnover:1) objects that can be freely transferred to another person;2) objects with limited turnover (may belong only to certain participants in the turnover or whose stay in the civil turnover is allowed by special permission);3) objects withdrawn from civil circulation (which are not allowed in civil circulation).Economic rights to certain OIPR are restricted in civil circulation (for example, to a trade name) or withdrawn from civil circulation (for example, to a geographical indication).In addition, the exercise of intellectual property rights may be restricted in certain areas in order to protect the public interest. Such public interest consists, among other things, of the protection of the state interests during the introduction into civil circulation of property rights to OIPR, created during the execution of SDO.Taking into account the provisions of Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine «On Science Parks», we propose to establish an imperative provision in this Law and the draft Law of Ukraine «On Defense Procurement» (Reg. № 2398-d of November 27, 2019). Such changes should stipulate that economic rights to OIPR created during defense procurement are limited in civil turnover. The exercise of rights to such OIPR is possibleonly with the consent of the state customer in the field of defense.Restriction of civil turnover of economic intellectual property rights to these objects should be aimed not only at eliminating the possibility of transferring (assigning) economic rights to such objects, but should also implement other options for their introduction into civil circulation, including the right to use OIPR or to transfer economic rights to the specified OIPR into pledge. In order to improve the legal regulationof these legal relations, it is necessary to amend the legislation of Ukraine in the field of pledge. Peculiarities of securities of intellectual property rights should be enshrined in a separate section of the Law of Ukraine «On Pledge». Such changes should include, inter alia, the obligation to negotiate agreements on pledge of economic rights to OIPR, created during the implementation of the SDO with the public customer. Relevant provisions should be enshrined in the draft Law of Ukraine «On Defense Procurement». The improvement of the legislation studied in the article will contribute to a systematic solving of the issue of establishing the conditions for the execution of economicrights to OIPR, created as a result of SDO, namely the need for such approval of the state customer, that will ensure public interests in the field of national security and defense of Ukraine by the provision of control over the civil turnover of such objects.