Peculiarities of the legal status of the Appellate Chamber of the Ukrainian Intellectual Property Office

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the legal status of the Appellate Chamber of the National Intellectual Property Office. The author analyzes the features of the Appellate Chamber as a collegial body of the National Intellectual Property Office. It is established that a two-tier system of legal protection of intellectual property has been introduced in Ukraine, which includes the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the National Intellectual Property Office. The functions of the National Intellectual Property Office are performed by the state organization “Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations”. It is established that the Appellate Chamber is part of the structure of the National Intellectual Property Office and is its body, therefore the Appellate Chamber is not endowed with independent legal personality. It is proved that the Appellate Chamber of the National Intellectual Property Office plays an important role in the mechanism of legal protection of patent rights, since this body of the National Intellectual Property Office ensures the consideration of objections to decisions of the National Intellectual Property Office on the acquisition of rights to intellectual property objects, applications for recognition of rights to intellectual property objects as invalid in whole or in part; The Appellate Chamber also reviews applications for recognition of a trademark as well-known in Ukraine. It is proven that the Appellate Chamber of the National Intellectual Property Office is not a subject of intellectual property law, but is a body of the National Intellectual Property Office, which is part of the system of state legal protection of intellectual property, and is a subject of legal relations that arise during the submission and consideration of applications, objections, appeals, and other documents to the National Intellectual Property Office. It is substantiated that the consideration of cases in the Appellate Chamber becomes an alternative procedure for considering and resolving cases that are attributed by law to its competence. Judicial consideration of such cases is more complex and lengthy, and requires professional legal support. It has been established that the definition of the National Intellectual Property Office and the National Intellectual Property Office Appeals Chamber are provided in several laws regulating relations in the field of legal protection of intellectual property (“On the Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models”, “On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs”, “On the Protection of Rights to Trademarks for Goods and Services”, etc.), which is a shortcoming of the legislative technique. The need for the adoption of a separate special law on the National Intellectual Property Office, which could uniformly regulate the legal status of the National Intellectual Property Office, its structure, competence, as well as the legal status and powers of the National Intellectual Property Office Appeals Chamber, has been substantiated. It has been established that the main task of the Appellate Chamber is to consider objections submitted to it regarding decisions made by the National Intellectual Property Office (whose functions are currently performed by the UKRNOIVI) based on the results of consideration of applications for state registration of rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, etc., consideration of appeals (on the recognition of invalidity of rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs) and applications for recognition of trademarks as well-known in Ukraine.