In Ukraine, people associate the raiders with armed thugs “sports appearance” that power establishes control over the business, under the guise of some court decisions. But now capture methods become more sophisticated, because the most valuable asset not even money, but information. About how to protect the business, strengthening the protection of intellectual property (IP), the Director yurkompanii IPStyle Mariya Ortinska.
The attack on IP is unable to produce the ex – and present employees — for example, they assign rights to the service invention, created during the work in the company. “So to avoid problems related to disputes on IP rights, for 4 months from the date of receipt from the inventor of notice an employer must apply for a patent, or transfer the right to receive another person, or to save the information about the invention confidential,” explains Ortinska. Then the employer must make the inventor a written contract on the amount and conditions of remuneration. “If the employer has not complied with these requirements, the right to receive a patent for a service invention goes to the inventor,” says the lawyer. While Ortinska emphasizes: “in the employment contract, which States that all inventions created during employment belong to her. It is necessary to register and remuneration — for example, 1000 UAH”.
The Director may assign a business registered in the name of trademark or invention, or transfers the rights to IP objects. As an IT specialist, the Director may make his name on the domain or accounts in social networks — and the company loses the rights to them.
The founders and partners can also register the rights on IP objects in his name. “Relationship when using the mark, the certificate to which belongs to several persons shall be determined by agreement. In his absence, each owner of the certificate may use the mark in its discretion, but has no right to permit the use of the mark and transfer ownership without the consent of the other owners of the certificate,” explains Ortinska.
Cybersquatters (means “unauthorized settlement”) specially register on different domains. When the owner of the company wants to register their website — turns out he’s “busy”. To get it, you have to pay squatter. “Attackers are monitoring the emergence of new companies or brands that are not represented in the country, and register the domain. To beat them you need to quickly register your domain,” she says.
There are also “patent trolls” — they’ll patent anything, even not being the producers of the products. “In Ukraine there are examples of patents of clothes hangers or screws. Real manufacturer could face a ban on the production of their products. Then will have a court to invalidate a patent, or to purchase the patent Troll,” says Ortinska. Therefore, it is better to patent developments and to produce a patent search on the subject of non-infringement of foreign patents.
