PROBLEMS OF REFORMING UKRAINIAN LEGISLATION ON UTILITY MODELS

Abstract

The article analyzes the problems and prospects for improving the legislation of Ukraine in the field of legal protection of utility models. Attention is drawn to the fact that utility models are not protected in all countries of the world, including within the European Union. In this regard, the feasibility of preserving the utility model as one of the objects of intellectual property law in the national legislation of Ukraine is substantiated. Legislative approaches to defining the essence of a utility model in different legal systems are analyzed, primarily in the member states of the European Union, and two main approaches are identified: understanding a utility model as a form of protection of an invention and as a separate object of intellectual property rights. The position is expressed on the inexpediency of changing the approach enshrined in the current legislation of Ukraine, according to which a utility model is defined as one of the objects of intellectual property rights along with an invention. Different approaches at the level of national legislation of the member states of the European Union in determining the range of objects that can receive legal protection as utility models are analyzed. In this issue, it is advisable to limit the scope of objects of a utility model exclusively to devices. The experience of the European Union member states in establishing the conditions for granting legal protection to a utility model is analyzed. In this issue, the point of view expressed in the literature on the expediency of implementation an inventive step criterion for a utility model is supported. At the same time, when determining this criterion for a utility model, it is necessary to take into account the nature of a utility model as a technical solution, which is lower in level than an invention.