Ukraine

The Constitution of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Конституція України) was adopted and ratified on June 28, 1996 by the Parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada). It was amended twice on December 8, 2004 and on September 30, 2010. The amendments of 2004 introduced a political reform, whereby the organization of state changed from the presidential-parliamentary to the parliamentary-presidential form, government members started to be elected by the political parties and the power of Parliament was extended to 5-year term. The amendments of 2010 have annulled the amendments of 2004 and introduced presidential-parliamentary state organization.

The Constitution of Ukraine is the main law of the State. Laws and regulations must conform to the Constitution. The right to amend the Constitution through a special legislative procedure is vested exclusively in the Parliament. The only state body that may interpret the Constitution and determine whether the legislation conforms to it is the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

The Constitution guarantees protection to intellectual property rights in Article 41(1), Article 54(1, 2). It protects the right to own, use, or dispose of intellectual property and the right to benefit from the intellectual and creative activity. Furthermore, it safeguards the freedom of literary, artistic, scientific, technical and creative activities and industrial property rights, copyright and related rights. Furthermore, the Constitution contains several provisions related to traditional cultural expressions (Articles 11, 54 and 66), genetic resources (Articles 13, 16 and 66), undisclosed information concerning data security (Articles 31 and 34) and fair competition (Articles 42).