The conversation with Oksana Yurchyshyn, Head of the Department of Scientific and Innovative Support of the Educational Process of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Associate Professor of the Department of Machine Design of the Institute of MMI, took place on the eve of the International Day of Intellectual Property. Therefore,
the first question to Oksana Yaroslavivna concerned the recent publication of the manual "Intellectual Property. Practical Aspects". It covers legal, economic and managerial aspects of intellectual property.
- Oksana Yaroslavivna, congratulations on your professional holiday and the publication of the manual, which covers the issues of acquisition, legal protection and use of intellectual property rights. What motivated you to take up its creation?
- Thank you for your congratulations! I take this opportunity to congratulate my colleagues on the holiday. After all, everyone who works at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is directly involved in this holiday, contributing to technological progress through their own developments, research, and pedagogical activities aimed at educating specialists for the real economy.
- Now to the manual we created together with Yulia Danylenko, a researcher at the Institute of Scintillation Materials. Our goal was to provide explanations in an accessible form, including on the proper conduct of patent and market research. You will agree that a researcher, industrial engineer, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, university professors, graduate students and students today need to have basic knowledge of how to acquire rights to the results of their research for the purpose of further commercialization, for example, of an invention. How to file an application for registration of industrial property rights and copyright in Ukraine? What are the possibilities of international registration of these documents? These and other relevant questions can be answered in our guide. I would like to emphasize that by analyzing the experience of commercialization of intellectual property rights based on scientific research and in accordance with the current state of Ukrainian legislation, our readers have received step-by-step instructions on how to deal with an invention, utility model, or industrial design in a tabular and logical manner.
Scientific and innovative activity at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is ensured, in particular, through the interaction between the research department and the department of scientific and innovative support of the educational process. And with whom are the methods of protecting intellectual property rights correlated from a legal point of view?
- We work together with the contractual work department of the university's legal department. Experienced lawyers work here, where you can always get professional answers to all questions that arise when working with intellectual property. And they sometimes arise because intellectual property is always something new, and there are often no template solutions. By the way, our university pays considerable attention to intellectual property issues in the educational process. Almost all educational programs for university students include a discipline related to intellectual property and patent law.
The work of the Expert Center 4.0 (Center for Digital Competencies), which operates under your leadership, involves intensifying its activities as a Digital Innovation Hub (DIH). Please tell us more about this project.
- I would like to repeat that one of the tasks we are trying to implement is to organize cooperation between the university and small and medium-sized businesses to increase their competitiveness, equip them with knowledge on attracting investment, sharing innovations, awareness of industrial property and copyright issues in Ukraine and the possibilities of their international registration. After receiving a grant from the European Union (Boosting Widening Hub, or BOWI) to develop our activities, we are now able to provide expertise on technologies related to the digital industry 4.0 and requests from enterprises. Thus, a new competence center for interaction between business, science, innovators, and government is already functioning. After all, the EU stimulates and finances innovative companies, especially their consortia, through such competitions. The peculiarity of DIH's activities is that they are aimed at increasing the level of innovation, technology, and competitiveness, including of Ukrainian enterprises. It also works to expand the range of contacts with European partners.
We are now moving to the European Digital Hub model: we have formed a consortium that unites 14 public, industrial, and scientific organizations. Its functioning is aimed at creating a regional innovation ecosystem. In other words, if the production process at a single company is a factor and at the same time a field of application of science, then science in modern production should be a factor of development, including digital technologies.
Our KPI DIH Center 4.0 was opened at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. However, DIH is not just a subdivision of an institution or a legal entity, it is an association of partners based on a cluster model. And the Association of Industrial Automation Enterprises of Ukraine plays a key role in DIH's activities, as well as in the BOWI project. It was the Association that was an active participant in the process of involving DIH in this competition, provided an innovative range of services from brokerage companies, attracted small and medium-sized businesses, and conducted trainings for both the BOWI team and enterprise representatives. In short, we have a great prospect for further activities.
- Can you give us an example of successful cooperation between the Center 4.0 KPI DIH and business?
- One of the project participants is the Ukrinterm joint venture. This company produces thermal equipment, including boilers of various capacities. The product range includes standardized serial products, but there are also unique installations that are designed according to customer requirements. The company has a stable strategy. It is about bringing high-tech heating equipment and services as close as possible to the needs of consumers in all regions of Ukraine. By focusing on energy efficiency, Ukrinterm has a significant economic effect: 7.2 billion cubic meters of gas are saved annually nationwide.
- Oksana Yaroslavivna, as a scientist, you have more than 60 scientific papers, received more than 20 patents of Ukraine for inventions and utility models, have a heavy workload as an associate professor, and work in the research and innovation support department takes up a lot of time. How do you manage to keep up with everything, and even in the midst of war?
- I, like most Ukrainians, am trying to do everything I can to be useful in this difficult period. Of course, not everything works out right away and not everything goes smoothly. However, I work in a team of decent people and good professionals, and this encourages me to persevere. I am convinced that only teamwork can lead to results in activities related to innovative development.
- You recently took part in the VII Conference "Creation, Protection, Enforcement and Commercialization of Intellectual Property Rights". What did you remember about this event?
- This conference is also an example of teamwork. Together with us, the event was co-organized by the Intellectual Property Research Institute, Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University, and the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technology (Dnipro). What was memorable about the conference? The participants' interest in intellectual property issues and their desire to share relevant knowledge and experience. I also remember the fact that, despite the difficult times, the conference was attended by more than 60 specialists from all over Ukraine (some of them from Kharkiv were absent due to difficult military circumstances). We have submitted 50 reports for publication. Participants from Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Lutsk, and Germany include educators, representatives of various business sectors, patent attorneys, forensic experts, and students.
- What would you like to wish your colleagues, students and postgraduates today?
- First of all, I wish you all good health! I urge you to create, experiment, and accumulate intellectual capital, which is the best foundation for our common well-being despite the challenges of the times. I wish all of us success in this and victory to Ukraine!
Victor Zadvornov spoke with