The Constitution of Ukraine states, "Everyone has the right to own, use, and control his property, the results of his intellectual, creative activity." Ukrainian laws on the protection of intellectual property rights comply with the requirements of the World Trade Organization and protect copyright (works of science, literature, and the arts); related rights (performance of a work, production of a soundtrack, videogram, publication of broadcasts of broadcasting organizations); industrial property such as inventions, utility models, industrial designs, innovative proposals, trademarks and service marks, geographical indications of the origin of goods, plant and animal varieties, topographies of integrated circuits, trade secrets. The employer is the sole owner of intellectual property rights to and in the results achieved by his employees through work, unless expressly provided for in an employment or civil contract with the employee.
The vast majority of intellectual property is protected if it is registered in Ukraine and includes inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, topography of circuits, plant species and animal breeds. Other intellectual property is protected without registration, for example, trade names, trade secrets, copyrighted items (because the rights to their protection arise at the time of creation of the work, and non-property rights are indefinite, while property rights last throughout the author's life and for 70 years after his death).
The state system of legal protection of intellectual property in Ukraine is made up of the Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute (Ukrpatent), the National Intellectual Property Office, the Ukrainian Copyright and Related Rights Agency, as well as other institutions protecting investors' intellectual property rights.