Securing Intellectual Property Rights in Ukraine’s Defence Tech Sector: Navigating Patents, Know-How, and Licensing Challenges

Answer first: As Ukraine’s Defence Tech sector gains global attention, companies face critical challenges in securing intellectual property rights. Proper patent strategies, trade secret protections, and robust licensing agreements are essential to safeguard innovations such as unmanned systems and AI-driven solutions. This article…

Patents context for IP teams

The rapid evolution of defence technologies is reshaping how military innovations are developed and deployed. No longer limited to state-owned enterprises, modern defence solutions increasingly emerge from private technology companies, start-ups, and research centers. These innovations span unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, command-and-control software, robotics, and related fields.

Ukraine’s Defence Tech sector has attracted significant global interest, with several Ukrainian companies featured in international rankings such as the "100 Startups to Watch in 2026." However, many start-ups encounter a common obstacle: despite having operational technology and investor interest, they often lack properly secured intellectual property (IP) rights. This gap poses risks of losing control over technology, complicates investment efforts, and can hinder access to international markets.

Key takeaways for intellectual property protection in defence tech

• Confirm how the development affects patents ownership, enforcement, licensing, or portfolio records.
• Separate confirmed facts from legal interpretation before advising business teams.
• Map deadlines, affected assets, contracts, and evidence files to the responsible internal owner.
• Use the issue as a prompt for monitoring, filing strategy, dispute preparation, or member education.

Practical analysis

Timely and strategic structuring of IP assets substantially enhances a company’s valuation and appeal to investors. Patent protection remains a cornerstone legal mechanism for safeguarding technical solutions in defence innovation. Patents grant exclusive rights to exploit inventions or utility models and empower owners to authorize or prohibit third-party use.

In the Defence Tech sector, patents are particularly relevant for innovations involving unmanned systems, signal processing, navigation, equipment design, materials, components, control systems, and integrated hardware-software solutions. However, not every technological element should be disclosed via patent applications, as this involves public disclosure.

Patent prosecution in this sector has distinct challenges. The average patent examination period in Ukraine is approximately 24 months, but complex inventions or heavy workloads can extend this timeline. Utility models offer faster registration but do not replace comprehensive patent strategies, especially for technologies with long-term commercial prospects or international ambitions.

Compliance with the novelty requirement is critical. A technical solution must not have been publicly disclosed before the patent application filing date. Public demonstrations at exhibitions, conferences, or investor presentations without confidentiality safeguards can jeopardize patentability. Although Ukrainian law provides a limited grace period for certain disclosures, relying on it is risky and requires substantiation.

For example, a company that showcases a prototype guidance system and shares technical specifications with a foreign partner without a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or prior patent filing risks losing patent protection. The partner gains access to sensitive information without clear usage restrictions, complicating IP enforcement.

Additionally, companies must consider whether their technologies involve restricted information, state secrets, export controls, or regulatory regimes governing defence technology transfers abroad. Consequently, many firms adopt a hybrid approach: patenting key technical solutions while safeguarding the most sensitive elements as know-how or trade secrets.

Due to the public nature of patent disclosures and the sensitivity of defence technologies, many Defence Tech innovations rely primarily on know-how or trade secret protection. This includes manufacturing processes, equipment configurations, and quality control procedures.

Unlike patents, know-how protection does not require registration but demands demonstrable commercial value, confidentiality, and non-public availability. Effective protection extends beyond NDAs to encompass internal policies on information access, confidentiality markings, repository restrictions, access logs, contractor protocols, and document transfer rules.

NDAs must clearly define the scope of confidential information, permitted uses, confidentiality duration, handling procedures, liability for breaches, governing law, and dispute resolution mechanisms. In international negotiations, these provisions are vital; without explicit dispute resolution clauses, enforcing confidentiality can be problematic.

Employment agreements and internal policies should explicitly address employee-created IP and assign proprietary rights to the employer. Generally, IP created during employment is jointly owned unless contracts specify otherwise. From an investor’s perspective, joint ownership without exclusive control documentation raises concerns.

For external contractors, service agreements must explicitly address ownership of IP rights in deliverables, timing and scope of assignment, inclusion in remuneration, reuse rights, and warranties against third-party infringement.

For instance, a programmer working as an individual entrepreneur developed a drone control system module, but the contract only described services without IP assignment. During due diligence, investors questioned the company’s rights to use, modify, and license the module, highlighting the importance of clear contractual provisions.

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