Brands & Trends 2018, Issue I

TRADEMARKS: CLASH OF NON-EXISTING YEARS

The case we address below in more detail may become a precedent setter since for the first time a court has resolved the issue that was subject to heated debate: whether the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (the “Association Agreement”) is directly enforceable and whether its trademark-specific provisions prevail over Ukrainian trademark laws. At various conferences and round tables, judges voiced the idea of direct applicability of the trademark protection provisions of the Association Agreement. With some degree of skepticism, the litigants and litigators expected that judges would focus more on the domestic law than on groundbreaking ideas. However, they did not.