Publishing & Creative Industries
In publishing and the creative industries, copyright is the primary legal mechanism that enables monetization of literary, artistic, and design works. Control over the reproduction, distribution, and adaptation of creative content is the foundation of commercial value in this sector.
For foreign publishers, authors, and creative studios operating in the Ukrainian market, the principal legal challenges involve digital piracy of published works, structuring publishing and licensing agreements, and addressing the emerging questions surrounding AI-assisted content creation.
ADVANCE PARTNERS acts as local IP counsel for publishers, authors, illustrators, and creative studios. We provide legal support in copyright registration and enforcement, publishing agreement structuring, anti-piracy measures, and trademark prosecution for publishing brands in Ukraine.
Our Services
- Copyright Registration and Enforcement: Registration of copyrights for books, articles, digital publications, illustrations, photography, creative translations, and original artistic works. Enforcement against unauthorized reproduction and distribution through civil proceedings and coordination with law enforcement.
- Trademark Protection: Registration and enforcement of trademarks for publishing houses, imprints, magazine titles, creative studio brands, and digital content platforms across relevant Nice Classification classes.
- Publishing and Licensing Agreements: Structuring publishing contracts, translation and adaptation licensing agreements, and subsidiary rights arrangements. Drafting provisions on rights ownership, territorial scope, reversion clauses, and royalty terms under Ukrainian law.
- Anti-Piracy and Digital Enforcement: Enforcement against unauthorized distribution of published works through torrent sites, social media, and e-commerce platforms. Utilizing the procedures under Ukrainian Law, including pre-judicial notices to website owners, cooperation with hosting providers, and judicial blocking orders.
- Resale Right (Droit de Suite): Advisory on the application of the artist’s resale right under Ukrainian copyright law for original works of visual art, including fine art, illustrations, and limited-edition prints.
Key Legal Issues
We provide legal support on specialized matters relevant to publishers and creative professionals:
- AI-Generated and AI-Assisted Content: Advisory on the legal status of works created with AI assistance under Ukrainian copyright law, including the distinction between copyrightable human-authored works and non-original computer-generated objects protected by sui generis rights. Counsel on authorship verification and rights allocation for hybrid content.
- Author-Publisher Disputes: Representation in disputes between authors and publishers over rights allocation, royalty calculations, reversion of rights, and unauthorized derivative works.
- Collective Rights Management: Advisory on the interaction with Ukrainian collective management organizations (CMOs) for the administration of reprographic reproduction rights, public lending rights, and digital distribution royalties.
- Text and Data Mining: Advisory on the scope of the text and data mining exception under Ukrainian copyright law, including the limitations to research purposes and the conditions for lawful use of published content for computational analysis.
