Industrial Designs in Ukraine: What the 2020 Reform Changed
Ukraine's industrial design term is 5 years from filing, renewable to a maximum of 25 — not the 10-plus-5, 15-year term still quoted on a lot of advisory sites.
Search for how long an industrial design is protected in Ukraine and you will still find pages quoting “up to 15 years.” That has not been correct since 2020, and the current structure is different enough from the old one that it is worth setting out properly rather than just correcting the headline number.
The term, correctly stated
An industrial design in Ukraine is protected for 5 years from the filing date, renewable in further 5-year periods, to a maximum total term of 25 years.
The old 15-year figure described a different structure: an initial 10-year term with a single extension of 5 years. The current structure comes from Law No. 815-IX, in force since 16 August 2020, which reformed Ukrainian design law alongside trademark law as part of aligning with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
Why this matters for docketing
Under the old rule a Ukrainian design had one renewal point. Under the current rule it has up to four across its maximum 25-year life — at 5, 10, 15 and 20 years from filing. A docketing system still carrying the old assumption will both miss renewal windows and expect one at year 10 that no longer exists in that form.
What else changed around the same time
Several related changes are worth knowing if you are relying on older guidance for a Ukrainian filing:
- Trademark non-use revocation moved from 3 years to 5 years of continuous non-use — part of the same 2020 law
- Accelerated examination was suspended on 3 October 2022 for the duration of martial law — a later, separate change
- UANIPIO, the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations, took over the functions of the former Ukrpatent in November 2022 — also unrelated to the 2020 law, but it means that “Ukrpatent” on a current page is itself a sign of stale content
What qualifies for design protection
Ukrainian design protection covers the appearance of a product — its shape, lines, contours, colours, texture and ornamentation — and, since the reform, is assessed against the EU-style tests of novelty and individual character. It sits alongside patent and trademark protection rather than replacing either: a product’s technical function is a patent question, its brand is a trademark question, and its appearance is the design question.
Filing basics
A Ukrainian design application needs representations of the design, the applicant’s details, an indication of the product, a priority document if priority is claimed, and — for a foreign applicant — a power of attorney in favour of a Ukrainian patent attorney. The reformed law also allows several designs to be combined in a single multiple application, subject to conditions; where a client has a family of related designs, it is worth checking this before filing each one separately.
Full procedural detail, required documents and the registration timeline are on our Industrial Designs page.
If you are relying on older guidance
If a client file, a docketing system, or guidance you were given describes a 15-year Ukrainian design term, it predates the 2020 reform and should be corrected before it affects a renewal decision. Get in touch with the filing date and we will confirm exactly where a specific Ukrainian design sits in its term.