Michal Svantner: “The high professional level of the Ukrainian
specialists is worth mentioning” .jpg) The international conference on actual problems of intellectual property, which took place in Svaliava and hosted specialists from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Armenia, Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Romania, is, in the opinion of its participants, a perfect ground for professional discussion of various topics connected with intellectual property, a unique platform for studying practical aspects of international experience and practice with due consideration of each country’s specific features.
One of the conference guests, Michal Svantner - Director of the Division of Cooperation with Certain Countries in Europe and Asia of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) – is an open-minded man with varied attainments, who is a brilliant conversationalist and thoroughly knows the things he speaks about. About legislation – Concerning the Ukrainian legislation in the intellectual property field, I, on behalf of the WIPO management, would like to underline that your country has made a significant headway in this area. Certainly, a great role here is played by the State Department of Intellectual Property (SDIP), which intensively works on the tasks of improvement of legislation and its harmonisation with international norms and regulations. Recollecting the negotiations between Mykola Paladiy, the SDIP Chairman, and Francis Gurry, the WIPO Director General, that took place within the WIPO Assembly in September 2009, I would like to confirm WIPO’s readiness to promote the development of the national strategy of Ukraine in the sphere of intellectual property in every possible way. About Ukrainian specialists – I am delighted to acknowledge that SDIP’s management and specialists take active part in at times heated WIPO debates concerning development and improvement of the international norms of intellectual property rights protection. They have gained a high reputation on the international level thanks to their aspiration to stand up for Ukraine’s position in the world, and we would like to see that other countries of this regions take part in WIPO discussions on intellectual property matters with the same determination, activity and perseverance. About joint events – Among the latest WIPO and SDIP’s joint achievements, I would like to note the WIPO Academy international Summer School on Intellectual Property held in Odessa in summer 2009. Considering the high organisational level and participants’ positive feedback, a decision was made to organise the Summer School in Ukraine yearly. This decision has a great international significance and demonstrates SDIP’s excellent level of performance and its active participation in WIPO strategic activities. About the Interregional Seminar – I am very pleased to acknowledge that the Interregional Seminar held within the framework of the Svaliava Conference and dedicated to the matters of protection of audiovisual works and performances, highlighted the first-class level of the representatives of Ukraine – lawyers, specialists in the field of copyright, related rights and collective management of copyright. All the international specialists taking part in the seminar brought in particular propositions on possible ways of legislation improvement, which will certainly be considered in our future joined work. About the Transcarpathian atmosphere – I admire of the marvellous atmosphere of the Transcarpathian region which hosted the Conference. We are inspired by the historical tradition, multinational human resources of this region endowed with an extraordinary intellectual power; this very geographic region of Ukraine houses creative specialists of different nations – Ukrainians, Romanians, Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks and others – this united headway made in mutual respect and cooperation for the sake of development of their country, their region, advance of science and inventive activity, is a peculiar model of Europe on the whole. About Internet piracy – The Internet piracy problem has become very urgent lately. One can even say that the future of the human race will greatly depend on whether we will be able to resolve this problem, because we face a real threat to the development of science and arts. WIPO tries to implement international legislative norms in this area. At the same time, awareness on the piracy threat should be raised among the public. People have to realise that everyone who illegally uses intellectual property objects causes losses to the creator. Resolution of this problem is extremely important as it will foster the development of science, arts, human creativity. About collective management organisations – There is evident progress on the way of improving the legislation concerning collective management of authors’ rights in Ukraine. WIPO points out the high professional level of Ukrainian specialists who realise the necessity of changes in this sphere. WIPO, for its part, is ready to make the experience gathered in Europe available to them. We have developed special manuals, in particular with the participation of Ukrainian specialists, concerning the peculiarities of copyright management in the countries in transition.
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