Changes to legislation, court practice news and much more
A new service has been launched in the Electronic Court
Under the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Mandatory Registration and Use of Electronic Accounts in the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System or its Separate Subsystem (Module) for Document Exchange», the Electronic Court now sends electronic enforcement documents to the parties and allows them to be submitted for enforcement in electronic form. In particular, to send an electronic enforcement document to the Electronic Account of the creditor and the debtor, it is enough to create the enforcement document in the court’s case management system and sign it with the judge’s qualified electronic signature.
Updated fees for actions related to the protection of intellectual property rights apply from 16 September
On 16 September, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 859 of 15 August 2023 «On Amendments to the Procedure for Paying Fees for Actions Related to the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights» enters into force
The Resolution provides, in particular, for:
- new types of fees for third-party oppositions to invention applications, administrative revocation of patents, obtaining a supplementary protection certificate for inventions, information searches, restoration of rights by applicants and right holders, etc.;
- new wording of the types of fees in line with the new terminology;
- larger fee reductions for non-profit institutions and organisations.
Since 5 September 2023, the Ministry of Digital Transformation has added a student ID sharing feature to Diia.
Sharing documents through Diia makes services based on a student ID simpler and faster. With this feature, students can now register in a university system or create a personal account on educational platforms.
How does student ID sharing work?
- An institution (organisation) sends a request for a copy of the student ID to the student’s Diia.
- The student confirms the request to share the copy with Diia.Signature. The request shows which institution (organisation) is asking for the document.
- A copy of the student ID is instantly sent to the institution’s (organisation’s) system or e-mail.
To connect document sharing, an institution (organisation) must be officially registered in Ukraine, have no ties to Russia or Belarus and be entitled to request copies of documents.
For advice on the best way to use document sharing, contact the Diia team on Telegram: @DiiaStart.
On 14 September 2023, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan announced that a field office of the International Criminal Court had started work in Kyiv.
The ICC field office in Ukraine is the largest ICC presence outside The Hague.
The Office is expected to make the response to the crimes that Russia continues to commit against Ukraine and Ukrainians every day more effective and faster.
Since 6 September 2023, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention has run the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal
The Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal is a dedicated resource that allows employees to report corruption in their organisations anonymously. The whistleblowers’ information is promptly forwarded to the organisation’s management or the units (persons) responsible for preventing and detecting corruption, as well as to the specially authorised anti-corruption bodies (NACP, NABU, the National Police, the prosecutor’s offices).
Anyone who becomes aware of a corruption or corruption-related offence can report it on the Portal.
However, not everyone can obtain whistleblower status. A person is considered a whistleblower if all of the following conditions are met:
- the report is made by an individual (a citizen of Ukraine, a foreigner or a stateless person) who is convinced that the information is reliable;
- the information in the report contains verifiable facts indicating that another person may have committed a corruption or corruption-related offence;
- the person learned this information in connection with their employment, professional, business, public or scientific activities, service or studies.
If at least one of these conditions is not met, the person is considered an applicant.
The reward is 10% of the monetary value of the subject of the corruption offence or of the damage caused to the state, but may not exceed 3,000 minimum wages in force at the time the offence was committed.
To receive the reward, the person must have whistleblower status in the criminal proceedings.
The reward is paid from the State Budget by the state treasury after the court delivers a guilty verdict that has entered into legal force.
