The past and present of Ukrainian patents

The history of patents in Ukraine can be traced back to the period of Tsarist Russia. As early as 1812, Tsar Alexander I established the first patent system in the Russian Empire by publishing the "Declaration on the Privileges of Various Inventions and Discoveries in Crafts and Arts".
After the October Revolution in 1917, the legal system of Tsarist Russia collapsed. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) declared independence in 1918. In the same year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry established the Ministry of Invention and Technology. The agency registered the first patents of the Ukrainian state, acting in accordance with the old legislation of the Russian Empire.

Ukrainian Patent Application Requirements of 1918

In 1918, affected by the October Revolution, a large number of Russian refugees, including a large number of entrepreneurs, nobles, journalists, actors and factory owners, poured into the relatively stable Ukraine. Ukraine, as part of the old empire, still levies fees to holders of patents issued by institutions of the Russian Empire under the old law of the empire. The first patent certificate in Ukrainian history was issued to Russian entrepreneurs Grunthal and Antoshevsky. The application date was: June 27, 1918. The patent was about a craft decoration made of filigree. The two inventors produced a A special wooden sole that replaced galoshes and wooden sandals.
Currently, information on only 16 granted patents is in the archives of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ukraine. The last certificate bears the number 69 and is dated September 26, 1918. Clearly, a significant portion of patent records have been lost.

In 1918, Ukraine has stipulated that the inventor must write the description according to the specified sample (the form is issued by the Ministry of Commerce), and at the same time pay a stamp duty of 31-34 rubles, which is equivalent to what we call the application fee now. Such a low fee is even small. Craftsmen are also affordable, and in addition, if drawings are involved, two types of instruction drawings and a detailed description of the technique, written on special paper, are required, which is what we now call instructions.

It only takes a few months for the inventor to obtain a certificate of registration, and even within a few months of applying for a patent, the owner of the invention can use the protection certificate in advance to promote it or demonstrate it to the public, or even sell it.

The final decision on whether an invention meets the patentability criteria is made by a committee of experts that includes representatives of the sector or industry in the technical field involved. Granted patents can be used, assigned and even transferred.

Ukrainian patents from 1918 can be protected for 15 years. It even stipulates that its patentees need to implement and improve in the territory of the former Russian Empire. The Ukrainian government at the time saw the Ukrainian state as a partial heir to the empire and tried to tie inventions on its territory to Ukraine, increasing its economic potential.

Early Ukrainian Patents

Most of the early Ukrainian patents were related to domestic needs, such as footwear and electric heating devices made from industrial waste. But there were also other inventions related to industry, such as a method for a special alloy to withstand the friction of railroads, gasoline engines, hydraulic bicycles, etc. Inventors who file patent applications with the Invention Division include engineers, businessmen, and even students. On June 4, 1920, Zenon Hornytskyi, Director of the Bureau of Inventions, wrote a memorandum to the Patents Department in which he compared "patent applications in some countries" and criticized the new Russian patent system . Zenon Gornitsky proposed to reorganize his department into the "Department of Industrial Property Protection". In his view, this should "enhance the country's prestige in the eyes of industry and give Ukrainian patents the necessary luster and respect." However, Ukraine became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which in 1965 Became a member of the Paris Convention and joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1978.

The patent system in the Soviet era

The patent system in the Soviet Union stipulated that once a patent application was submitted, a request for substantive examination was required until it was granted or rejected. This conventional patent system was mainly applied to foreign residents of the USSR to stimulate the licensing of new technologies within the USSR and to promote the improvement of internal industrial structures.

According to the data retrieved by PatBase, during the Soviet period, a total of about 39,000 patent families were applied for and published, and reached a peak in the early 1970s. Since then, until the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the number of patent applications in the Soviet Union has been on a downward trend. The top five assignees during this period were Bayer, Hearst, BASF, Eli Lilly and Ciba-Geigy.

On the other hand, the USSR created a unique inventor certificate system, which was used on a large scale by the citizens of the USSR itself. Patent rights belong to the inventor or to the party to whom the inventor assigns. However, the inventor's certificate needs to be transferred to the state or a national organization. But inventors were also encouraged by incentives, such as bonuses, government-allocated houses, or the title of "Outstanding Inventor," which was highly appreciated in Soviet society. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, there were approximately 790,000 inventor certificates issued in the USSR.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia remained a member of the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. In 1994, Russia led the establishment of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) and passed the "Eurasian Patent Convention". The heads of government of 10 former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, signed the treaty in Moscow, but until today , Ukraine has not ratified the treaty.

Ukrpatent was born

After independence, the Ukrainian Industrial Property Office (Ukrpatent) adopted a system similar to the European patent system. More than 90% of patent applications claiming Ukrainian priority were mainly filed in Ukraine, and the four largest technical fields were: chemistry (27%), instrumentation (26%), mechanical engineering (24%) and electrical engineering (8%). The top five applicants were: Ukrainian National University of Food Technology, Ukrainian National University of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bangomorets National Medical University, Volodymyr Dahl National University of Eastern Ukraine and Vinnytsia National Technical University.

Ukrainian patents with promising future

In 2018, Ukraine ranked first out of 153 countries in the "Science and Technology" category of the Good Country Index, surpassing even the United States. Industry leaders such as Oracle, Siemens, Cisco, and Samsung have successively established R&D facilities in Ukraine. The Ukrainian IT sector has the largest number of IT engineers in Central Europe, with 130,000 engineering graduates and 16,000 IT graduates graduating every year. Even in its current state of war, Ukraine is promoting international cooperation among Ukrainian higher education institutions, conducting joint scientific research and projects.

Despite the current political and economic instability and ongoing wars in Ukraine, young Ukrainians have shown a strong desire for development and innovation, and they embody all the qualities needed to succeed in the fields of science and technology today.