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Katalin Fritz: Special Attention Should Be Paid to Training in the Sphere of Intellectual Property  Among the participants of the XV International Scientific and Practical Conference “Actual Problems of Intellectual Property” which recently took place in Svaliava was Katalin Fritz, specialist in the policy on international aspects of IP rights, European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade (Brussels, Belgium), who answered some of our questions.
Could you please evaluate the level of the legal protection of all the IPRs in Ukraine from the point of view of the EC? Is there an obvious progress in the country in this sphere? There is definitely a progress in the field of IPR protection in Ukraine. In our assessment, Ukraine has made serious efforts to upgrade its legal framework to the TRIPs and EU standards, to which UA has committed, and to reduce the level of piracy and counterfeiting. Having said all that; however, it needs to be pointed out that further improvements are still needed, in particular regarding commitment at government level, to have enforcement authorities to apply the available laws in an effective and dissuasive manner. Training and capacity building of enforcement bodies should be enhanced. Concerning piracy and counterfeiting there is a problem with the prevention and repression of sales of counterfeited and pirated goods in shops and in street markets, as well as on domestically based websites. Which is the level of partnership between the EU and the State Department of Intellectual Property on the issue of IPR protection? How do you see the perspective of the cooperation policy between the EU and the SDIP? I think the level of partnership between the EU and the SDIP is very good; we have developed a close cooperation and dialogue over the years, as well as with other Ukrainian government IP actors. We highly value the participation of SDIP on our biannual IPR Dialogues between Ukraine and the EU, and we hope that this good cooperation will continue in the future. Which EU projects will be implemented in the Ukraine in the nearest future? Mr. Phlix, from EPO, referred to a joint project between the EPO and the Ukraine government which is foreseen for later this spring. If there is a possibility, I think, the European Commission would like to participate in the mentioned project. I also would like to mention that we are currently working with the Ministry of Economics and other relevant Ukrainian authorities to organise a series of important training sessions on enforcement of IPR for law enforcement officials and judges. We have organised similar programs in Russia with great success. Your evaluation of the conference which is now taking place. How from your point of view, it can enhance the strengthening of cooperation between the EU and Ukraine? This conference has a very comprehensive program and is attended by representative of several different neighboring countries. I think it provides a great opportunity for the participants to exchange their views on the latest developments in the field of IPR. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank SDIP for the invitation. In my opinion, conferences like this one provides a great opportunity for us to exchange views with our Ukrainian colleagues and to better understand the functioning of IPR system in Ukraine. Thus it can add to the already good cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in this field.
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