In continuation of the good tradition, this time again Pakharenko and Partners became the general legal partner of the II All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Conference “Successful Viniculture – 2017” which took place in the end of February in Odesa with the support of the international project “Horticulture, Viniculture & Beverages. Technologies and Innovations”.

The event was attended by more than 200 guests and participants not only from Ukraine but also from Germany, Austria, Italy, Romania, Moldova and Georgia. It is apparent that the All-Ukrainian conference of winemakers acquires the international status and is gaining new momentum. Among the participants there were famous and acknowledged viniculturists and winemakers along with the new companies and amateur winemakers, representatives of small business from all across Ukraine.

As a traditional part of the conference there was a round table dedicated to the topical IP issues relevant for all the winemakers. The round table was held by the representatives of the general legal partner of the conference – IP and Law Firm “Pakharenko and Partners” in cooperation with the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine.

The round table “Wines of Ukraine: the brith of a brand” was moderated by Veronika Berezanska, the Head of the Commission on Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition of the ICC Ukraine, public projects coordinator at Pakharenko and Partners. The speakers of the round table will be Inna Shatova, the Head of the Division of legal support in industrial property sphere of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine, Anastasia Mindrul, deputy head of Trademark department of Pakharenko and Partners, and Evgeniy Kompanets, deputy head of Legal department of Pakharenko and Partners.

During the conference the participants of the event had an opportunity to view the mobile exhibition of the Museum of Counterfeits of the Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy that was demonstrated within their social event “I Buy Real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!” as a part of the all-Ukrainian awareness-raising campaign “Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Days in Ukraine”. The attendees could take a look at the samples of counterfeit goods and check their consumer skills by trying to identify the counterfeit features of goods. They also were offered to take part in the social survey about buying counterfeit goods. They were asked to fill in the questionnaire by answering two questions, namely whether any of them happened to buy counterfeit goods and whether they purchased them consciously.

According to the collected data, 18% of respondents claimed that they had never bought counterfeit goods; 27% of respondents admitted that they bought fake goods several times, but would never do it again; 17 % of respondents admitted that they bought fake goods and would continue doing it again; 19% of respondents had never thought about it and 19 % of respondents provided their original answers to the question, e.g. “The fake product was so skillfully made that only in a while I realized that it was not original”, “Unfortunately, the price of a fake product plays a very important role”, “I think I didn’t, and I don’t want to buy them” etc.

As regards the “consciousness” of the purchases, 17% of the respondents made a deliberate choice in favor of fakes because “they are cheaper than original goods and the product’s quality was acceptable”; 2% of respondents claim that they do not care about the quality of are buying fakes only because they are cheaper than the original goods; 60% of respondents unknowingly bought counterfeit goods because they thought they were original and only afterwards they realized that they had purchased fakes; 21% of respondents provided their original answers, such as “The prices for original goods go off scale”, “I don’t always understand whether it’s an original product or a counterfeit that I’m holding” etc.

As a keepsake of the event, all participants of the conference received the souvenirs with the slogan “I Buy real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!» to demonstrate their support of the UAACP campaign.

The participants of the conference listened attentively to the speakers, were very active in asking questions both during the round table and after its conclusion, discussing the matters of current interest with the IP professionals.