News

Import of Counterfeit Goods into Ukraine Prohibited

The legal team at Zilver successfully assisted an Indian producer and importer of Basmati rice in Ukraine in protecting their brand against counterfeit products. Thanks to our efforts, the producer’s trademark (TM) has been officially registered in the Customs Service of Ukraine’s relevant registry.

This means that any attempt to import rice under our client’s brand without proper authorization (a valid license agreement) from the Indian producer will be blocked by Ukrainian customs. This protection helps safeguard intellectual property rights and ensures that only genuine products reach the Ukrainian market.

If you are a producer or importer seeking to protect your trademark in Ukraine, Zilver’s experienced lawyers are ready to assist you.

Established a French-German Subsidiary Company in Ukraine

The legal team at Zilverlaw provided comprehensive support to a French-German holding company in establishing a new subsidiary in Ukraine. The newly formed company will specialize in consulting and auditing services in finance, environmental protection, and business process optimization.

Our services included:
• Full legal support in corporate, tax, and labor law
• Participation in negotiations with international partners
• Coordination of an international legal team
• Preparation of a complete set of incorporation documents
• Advising the management of the newly incorporated company

We work with international clients choosing various countries as platforms for business development, offering efficient and multilingual legal assistance in English and German.

Zilverlaw supported the crreation of the Ukrainian-Polish IT Joint Company

The legal team at Zilver successfully provided comprehensive support in establishing an international IT company between Ukrainian and Polish partners.

Our legal assistance included:

• Selecting the optimal legal structure in Ukraine

• Tax consultancy

• Drafting incorporation documents

• Coordinating actions between partners across jurisdictions

• Assisting with company registration in the Ukrainian registry

AI & Copyright Dispute: Court Ruling in the Meta Case

You may recall the legal dispute between a group of authors and Meta, where the tech giant was accused of using copyrighted works without permission to train its AI model, Llama.

A decision has been made.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, dismissed the case, stating that the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence that Meta’s AI could dilute the market for their work to show that its conduct was illegal under US copyright law. .

However, this is important:

The court did not rule that the use of copyrighted works without the authors' consent was lawful for the ML (machine learning). The fair use has to be proven for that aim. 

Judge Chhabria made it clear the decision was not an endorsement of Meta’s practices, but rather a result of the plaintiffs' failure to prove their case.

#AI #Copyright #IntellectualProperty #ArtificialIntelligence #LegalSupport #ZilverLaw

Comprehensive Legal Support for a German-Polish IT Company

The legal team at Zilver, in collaboration with Polish consultancy company Tax Benefit, delivered in-depth legal guidance to a German-Polish IT company. The consultation covered a wide range of Ukrainian legal areas, including labor law, taxation, IT regulations, contractual matters, and corporate law.

Established a subsidiary in Ukraine for Swiss holding company

Our lawyers, in cooperation with local lawyers, advised and assisted a Swiss company in establishing a subsidiary IT company (LLC) in Ukraine.

ENG: Our lawyers helped the couple to recognise the legal fact (parental relationship, IFV).

Some countries (e.g. Germany, England, Spain) do not allow assisted reproductive technologies, and couples wishing to have (another) child turn to providers of reproductive technologies in countries where it is allowed. However, such countries of origin of the parents do not recognise the birth certificates and the parental relationship of the genetic parents with the child born with the help of reproductive technologies (e.g. IVF).

In order to overcome such legal obstacles, the parents must apply to the local court of the country where the child was born and obtain a court order recognising the fact of the parental relationship between the genetic parents and the child. After legalisation (apostille) of such a court order, it should be sufficient to prove the parental relationship.

In one such case, our international team of lawyers assisted the couple to apply for, litigate and obtain a decree from the Ukrainian court recognising the legal fact that the couple were the genetic parents of the child. The decree was issued by the Darnitsky district court of Kyiv on 13 November 2024.

The procedure of application, litigation and obtaining the court decision in such cases is described under the link.

We wish the family all the best!

DE: Unsere Anwälte unterstützten das Paar bei der Anerkennung der Rechtslage (Elternverhältnis, IFV).

In einigen Ländern (z.B. Deutschland, England, Spanien) sind assistierte Reproduktionstechnologien nicht erlaubt, und Paare, die ein (weiteres) Kind haben möchten, wenden sich an Anbieter von Reproduktionstechnologien in Ländern, in denen dies erlaubt ist. Diese Herkunftsländer der Eltern erkennen jedoch die Geburtsurkunden und die elterliche Beziehung der genetischen Eltern zu dem Kind, das mit Hilfe von Reproduktionstechnologien (z.B. IVF) geboren wurde, nicht an.

Um diese rechtlichen Hindernisse zu überwinden, müssen sich die Eltern an das örtliche Gericht des Landes wenden, in dem das Kind geboren wurde, und einen Gerichtsbeschluss erwirken, der die Tatsache der elterlichen Beziehung zwischen den genetischen Eltern und dem Kind anerkennt. Nach der Beglaubigung (Apostille) eines solchen Gerichtsbeschlusses sollte es ausreichen, die elterliche Beziehung nachzuweisen.

Unser internationales Anwaltsteam unterstützte das Paar in einem solchen Fall: Der Antrag wurde eingereicht, die Antragsteller vor Gericht vertreten und die Entscheidung des ukrainischen Gerichts erwirkt. Das ukrainische Gericht erkannte die rechtliche Tatsache an, dass das Paar die genetischen Eltern des Kindes waren. Das Dekret wurde von dem Darnitski Bezirksgericht von Kiew am 13. November 2024 ausgestellt.

Das Verfahren der Beantragung, des Gerichtsverfahrens und der Erlangung der Entscheidung des Gerichts in solchen Fällen ist unter dem Link beschrieben.

Wir wünschen der Familie alles Gute!

New company in Kazakhstan

Our lawyers have assisted foreign investors in opening a company ("TOO") in the field of engineering and machinery in the Republic of Kazakhstan. More details on the procedure of opening a company in Kazakhstan can be found here.

Legal dispute over legal treatment of surrogacy won in appeal court

Since not all countries allow surrogacy and recognize the birth certificates of children born to surrogate mothers, many couples have to file an application with the court to establish their relationship.

Our clients have turned to the Ukrainian court with such a request.

The local Court (Case No. 753/11852/24) rejected the foreign couple's request to establish a fact of legal significance (family ties) on the grounds that such a matter is subject to examination in the form of an action.

The lawyers have appealed against this decision.

The Appeal Court accepted our appeal, annulled the decision of the Court of First Instance and referred the case back for consideration.

The Appeal Court confirmed that the determination of family relationships in lack of dispute is in a separate proceeding and not in the form of action proceedings.

Therefore, the case will be considered by the Court of 1st Instance.

It is to be hoped that the courts of first instance will take into account the opinion of the Court of Appeal in new similar cases and thus save time for all those involved in the proceedings.

Helped foreign investor to obtain business visa to Kazakhstan

In order to establish a business in Kazakhstan, shareholders (individuals, not companies) must obtain a business visa. Our lawyers have collected all the necessary documents from the government authorities, advised on obtaining the personal documents and assisted in submitting the application to the Kazakh consulate. As a result, the business visa for Kazakhstan is obtained.

Next step - opening a company in Kazakhstan and a bank account for the company.

Registered companies

Zilverlaw lawyers have advised its clients (business groups) on the establishment of companies in various parts of Europe and the OAE, including corporate, tax, migration and financial issues. Following the clients' decisions, our lawyers have assisted in the establishment of companies in the following countries

- Bulgaria: A-Tech Group (registration took 2.5 weeks).

- Czech Republic: Come-In Cons (registration took 2.5 weeks).

- United Arab Emirates: Adlogic FZO (registration took 3 weeks).

In addition, the lawyers assisted with the opening of a bank account or an account in a payment system for newly established companies.

Assisted in obtaining C5 business visa to Kazakhstan

Zilverlaw lawyers advised and assisted a foreign investor in obtaining a C5 business visa to Kazakhstan, which is required for a foreign shareholder to establish a limited liability company (LLC (TOO)) in Kazakhstan.

Zilver’ representative office in Prague (Czech Republic)

Zilver Law Firm has opened a representative office in Prague (Czech Republic). The office advises on international business and private cases.

Sell of the Ukrainian company

Our lawyers supported Israeli investors to sell the Ukrainian company to the local businessmen. The sellers issued power of attorney and provided the necessary documents to our team. The whole further work was organized and finished by our international team of lawyers.  

Change of the Ukrainian LLC’ director

Zilver lawyers advised and assisted the foreign shareholder in changing the director of its Ukrainian subsidiary (LLC). All the shareholder had to do was to issue a power of attorney and obtain an extract from the Register of Companies. All further work was carried out by local lawyers.

Webinar on "Business in Poland and Ukraine: Differences and challenges for EU companies"

The Webinar on "Business in Poland and Ukraine: Differences and challenges for EU companies", which was organized by Tax Benefit Sp. z o.o. and Zilver law company is now available at the link.

Mr. Michał Murawski (Tax Benefit Sp. z o.o.) spoke about tax issues in Poland, exports and VAT and many other topics relevantfor EU companies operating in Poland.

Mr. Yevgen Zarudnyev (Zilver Law Firm) spoke about legal aspects of establishing and doing business in Ukraine by foreign investors and holding companies.

Webinar on US Privacy Laws

Zilver Law Firm would like to thank Constangy Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP, Project Consulting Group, Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP, Prighter for the webinar “US Privacy laws - what to look out for in 2024: A comprehensive overview of recent and upcoming changes’.

The webinar was useful, and provided a deeper understanding of US privacy laws and how they relate to GDPR.

Our lawyers not only develop their professional skills, but also their knowledge and understanding of our clients' products/services.

For this reason, our lawyers participated (as listeners) in the webinar on "Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)" organised by the Open API Group, SCA provider Wultra (Czech Republic) and open banking solution provider GD Next (Switzerland).

SCA is regulated by the revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and NBU Decree No. 58 of 03.05.2023.

Congratulations to the GD Next team on their high level webinar!