Mechanisms for harmonising Ukrainian copyright legislation on software with EU standards: from sui generis to the acquis

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies is reshaping intellectual property law, exposing legal systems to new risks related to training data governance, automated copyright infringement, and platform-mediated content distribution. These tensions extend beyond traditional copyright markets, implicating trade secrets, database assets, and innovation pipelines, as AI systems depend on large-scale information flows that blur organisational boundaries and complicate data provenance. This article examines how Ukrainian copyright legislation on AI-generated software can be progressively harmonised with European Union standards, tracing the evolution from Ukraine’s pioneering sui generis protection model under Article 33 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights (2022) towards alignment with the EU acquis. The study analyses the interaction between Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act) and Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) as the dual normative foundation for IP governance in AI environments. It also explores Ukraine’s two-stage harmonisation roadmap, combining soft-law instruments, regulatory sandboxes, and AI labelling tools with the subsequent adoption of binding AI legislation and identifies four categories of implementation challenges: normative, institutional, technical-legal, and economic, with special emphasis on the absence of a competent national supervisory authority. Comparative legal analysis reveals systemic discrepancies between Ukrainian legislation and key AI Act requirements (Articles 9-15), including the lack of risk management obligations, technical documentation duties, and human oversight requirements in national law. The findings substantiate a phased, three-tier harmonisation strategy that combines machine-readable rights reservation mechanisms, mandatory training-data disclosure obligations for general-purpose AI providers, and the establishment of a dedicated national AI supervisory authority as preconditions for effective copyright protection of AI-generated software under EU-aligned standards.