On December 10, 2015 the Ukraine’s first permanent exhibition of the Museum of Counterfeits of Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP) was opened in the premises of the Kyiv University of Law of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (KUL of NASU) at 7a Dobrokhotova Street. This was made possible due to the collaboration between the UAACP and KUL of NASU which resulted in signing of the Memorandum and Agreement about further cooperation in the field of IPR protection in frames of providing support to UAACP in its activity aiming at development of the IPR protection system in Ukraine, improvement of the legislative framework, raising public awareness of the Ukrainians with regard to intellectual property rights.

The items of the UAACP’s Museum of Counterfeits have been displayed to the public earlier in the course of various activities held within the awareness-raising campaign “Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Days in Ukraine” which is a part of the global awareness-raising campaign named “World Anti-Counterfeiting Day” initiated by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group network. However, there was no permanent exhibition of the UAACP Museum of Counterfeits yet.

Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson, the President of the UAACP, opened the exhibition and personally guided the first visitors of the museum which were the participants of the 2-nd International Scientific and Practical Conference “Modern Challenges and Actual Problems of Intellectual Property Law in Ukraine and Europe” co-organized by the KUL of NASU and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Among the honorary guests of the conference there were Oleksandr Shevchenko, the Program Manager of the WIPO Department for Transition and Developed Countries, Herbert Schambeck, professor, renowned Austrian political leader, the former President of the Austrian Federal Council (1988, 1992-1997), Honorary Doctor of the KUL of NASU; Heribert Franz Koeck, Professor of the Johannes Kepler University of Linz (Austria), Petar Tanev, Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Ukraine, Mikheil Ukleba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Ukraine, Oleksandr Pasenyuk, the judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine. The conference was attended by leading national scientists, postgraduate students, students of higher educational institutions of Ukraine and foreign countries, representatives of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Batumi Shota Rustveli State University (Georgia), Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar”, National Academy of Prosecutors of Ukraine, National Aviation University, Kyiv National Vadym Hetman University of Economics and others.

The display items of the UAACP’s Museum of Counterfeits include numerous samples of pirated audio-visual products and various counterfeit goods bearing the trademarks of famous national and international brand owners sent over to the museum mainly by Pakharenko and Partners IP and Law Firm.

Taking into account that almost all consumer goods are being counterfeited, the visitors could view the samples of fake clothes, footwear, accessories, various packages, chemical products, cosmetics and stationery.

While guiding the visitors over the museum Antonina emphasized that counterfeiting is a very profitable business which exists only because there is a permanently high demand for the cheap goods while their production and distribution is not expensive and the punishments for this type of crime are not so strict to deter counterfeiters. At the same time production, distribution and purchasing of counterfeits contribute to financing organized criminal groups, may cause damage to consumers’ health and safety, increase ecological problems. It is particularly important that there is a clear understanding that counterfeit goods cause harm not only to each individual consumer, but also to the state as a whole, considering the loss of billions of Hryvnyas of potential tax revenues to the Ukraine’s state budget, the reduction of foreign direct investments as result of the country’s lowered investment attractiveness, growing corruption and crime rate, the lack of fair competition on the market, job cuts and brain drain.

The president of the UAACP expressed her opinion that the problem of counterfeiting may be solved through the joint efforts of police, courts and right holders by closing the illegal manufacture facilities, tracing supply chains, improving the system of prosecution, closing down the illegal distribution networks and carrying out regular awareness-raising activities among the consumers educating them about the dangers of purchasing counterfeits. Therefore, opening of the permanent exhibition of the UAACP’s Museum of Counterfeits is very important for accomplishing the latter.

The UAACP’s Museum of Counterfeits will be open for general public since February 2016 and meanwhile it may only be visited by students and professors of the KUL of NASU as well as the guests of the University.