Экономические науки / 4.Инвестиционная деятельность и фондовые рынки

Student Suspitsyn K.V.

National University of Food Technologies, Kiev, Ukraine

Protection and promotion of investment processes in intellectual property in Ukraine

In order to increase, grow and support competitiveness and output products and services to the market, companies more often invest in creative initiatives, innovations and other intellectual assets known as intellectual property or "IP".

  Intellectual property is highly significant in stimulation of innovation, 

economic development and leading industries, thus the volume of public investment in research, science centers and research institutions is growing. It is also introduced to provide better services in order to assist companies in the development and commercialization of trademarks, copyrights and patents.

An important aspect is the recognition by the governments that IP protection is closely linked to the public policy of attracting investment and innovation in the area of IP. It is known that economic growth is closely linked to the promotion of investments, stimulation and creation of favorable conditions for creativity and innovation.

Foreign direct investment is vital  because it stimulates economic development through transfer of technology and management skills, as well as by creating employment opportunities. 
According to the "Report on the state of global investments for 2012 'UN Conference, dedicated to the Trade and Development (UNCTAD) [4], 

Ukraine is among the countries with transition economy and with foreign direct investment of more than $ 5 billion and outflow of less than $ 0.5 billion. 

The largest investors in Ukraine over the past few years were the US ( 12%) , Germany ( 12%), Russia (10 %) and France ( 8%) [2]. In 2010, the biggest investors were from the European Union (54%) and Russia (15.6%) [2]. According to the report of the company «Ernst and Young» of FDI in Ukraine, despite a significant investment increase in the emerging markets, many investors in 2011 continued to believe that the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe (in particular, Ukraine) ranked the 3-rd by attractiveness of the region for investment projects. From 2006 to 2010, Ukraine ranked 10th place among the countries of Central and Eastern European region for number of projects and measure of jobs created [3].
Counterfeiting and piracy is a problem of the Ukrainian economy. It reduces the share of legitimate products in the country and lead to the development of "shadow economy ", which deprives the government of revenue for public services , violates the legal structure of thousands of jobs, undermining the investment climate, provides opportunities for "laundering" money, causing higher costs for legal defense, putting consumers on the dangers associated with the consumption of unsafe and ineffective products. Theft on IP has serious negative consequences for economic growth, health and public safety, public order and security.
 Plagiarism and fake results in significant profits for criminal groups and destroys the quality market by encouraging companies to illegal activities. Since piracy is beyond the law, establishing the exact scale of this activity is a complicated task. 
Ukraine has done a lot to combat infringements on IP by strengthening the legal protection of intellectual property [1]. Thus, there is some progress in implementing the minimum standards of IPR protection provided by TRIPS agreement within Ukraine's accession to the WTO in 2008 and its desire to strengthen political and economic integration with the European Union (EU) [1].
 However, there is still a need for further improvement , particularly regarding government policies focused on the effective application of existing legislation. Each year the USTR prepares a report on the state of international protection of IP rights, known as the Special 301 report for 2012, returned Ukraine to the list of priority observation , given the serious and growing concerns relating to counterfeiting and piracy, including Internet piracy.
 Official statistics  which would enable even imagine percentage of counterfeit goods is missing. According to Ukrainian alliance in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, the annual volume of trade in counterfeiting Ukraine can be evaluated to 1.3 billion, but this figure could be even higher. 
Areas, most vulnerable to fraud in Ukraine are:
· software scope;
· internet piracy; 
· agrochemicals; 
· medicines; 
· consumer goods.
Our state government began work on the project "National Strategy for the development of intellectual property of Ukraine till 2018. Draft national strategy includes such tasks as improving IP protection in Ukraine and creation of effective mechanisms to prevent and combat counterfeiting and piracy. In the process of drafting a national strategy Ukrainian government appealed to stakeholders to provide comments and recommendations, and the International Chamber of Commerce and its business initiative to stop counterfeiting and piracy (BASCAP), and the Ukrainian National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce responded to this call by providing proposals for political and legislative reforms.
Thus, an important point to public policy should be to fight counterfeiting. The real action in the field of IPR protection will help to convince businesses and consumers about the reliability of investing in this sector .
References:

1. Закон України про авторське право та суміжні права N 927-VIII ( 927-19) від 25.12.2015, ВВР, 2016, N 6, ст.61.

2. Офіційний сайт: Міжнародна торгова палата. [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://www.iccwbo.org/data/documents/intellectualproperty/

3. Звіт про прямі іноземні інвестиції в Україну за 2011 рік, Ernst & Young (2011), [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://goaleurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ Ukraine-FDI-Report-2011-Eng.pdf

4. Про ICC (International Chamber of Commerce — Міжнародна торгова палата) (2014р.) [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://iccua.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/--Rozvitok-i-zahist-intelektualnoyi-vlasnosti-v-Ukrayini---zvit-za-2014-rik.pdf