Justice Restored
UACRR Legal Department has protected the Agency goodwill in a court dispute with a Private Organization Collective Management Organization of Copyright and Related Rights.
On 24th of March 2015 the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine considered the lawsuit of UACRR against PO CMOCRR (OKUASP) regarding goodwill protection and incorrect information rebuttal.
It all started in June 2014 when one of collective management organizations operating in Ukraine, namely Private Organization Collective Management Organization of Copyright and Related Rights (ULCRR (ULASP) http://www.ulasp.org/ started to demand from Adidas Ukraine Subsidiary Enterprise http://www.global.adidas.com/ to enter into a License Agreement for unlimited use of musical works.
Since Adidas Ukraine Subsidiary Enterprise has signed agreement with UACRR it emphasized the groundlessness of PO CMOCRR (OKUASP)) requirements.
Not giving up hope to persuade our partner ULCRR (ULASP) attempted various dishonest and filthy tricks such as falsely informing our client that UACRR is not a collective management organization and therefore its power to license music repertory is significantly limited. This allegedly legally reasoned information was sent to multiple theatres, shopping malls and restaurants including UACRR partners.
After fully realizing the dishonesty of Collective Management Organization of Copyright and Related Rights foul play we decided to file the lawsuit against this company to protect our goodwill. The choice of protection method was not random. We did not need to collect fines or impose other penalties; we were just seeking for a court resolution binding ULCRR (ULASP) to send a letter refuting incorrect information previously distributed to our partner – Adidas-Ukraine Subsidiary Enterprise.
The Court of First Instance satisfied UACRR lawsuit. The Kyiv Commercial Court of Appeal, which is apparently didn’t understand the full extent of the case, overturned this decision and considered this information to be unreliable.
Reviewing whether the above-mentioned court resolutions were compatible with legal norms the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine stated the following:
since the information distributed by the defendant (reliability of which was being challenged by the claimant) was by its nature no more than defendant’s subjective judgment about the claimant’s legal status, this information cannot be classified as negatively affecting the goodwill or the claimant’s other non-proprietary rights that are being protected under Articles 94, 201, 277, 299 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.
The Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine also emphasized the groundlessness of the Court of Appeal statement set forth in a reasoning of disputed resolution that State Organization Ukrainian Agency of Copyright and Related Rights is not a collective management organization.
Thus the goodwill of State Organization Ukrainian Agency of Copyright and Related Rights was protected and justice was restored as expected.
You may visit the following link to read the full text of The Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine resolution http://www.reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/43285185