On 17 October 2012 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine quashed the Decree of the Ministry of Education and Science No.1175 dated 22 December 2008 "On Approval of Procedure for Selection of Collective Management Organizations Authorized to Collect and Distribute Compensation (Royalties) for Use of Phonograms and Videograms Published with a Commercial Purpose, and the Amendments to the Procedure of Registration of Collective Management Organizations and Supervision of their Activity" ("Decree No.1175").
Accordingly, the following key provisions were abolished:
- on the procedure for selection of collective management organizations (the "CMOs"), which was based on counting the number of contracts with copyright holders;
- the authority of the State Department of Intellectual Property (the "SDIP") to select and register CMOs.
The court declared that the main reason for cancellation of the Decree was its discrepancies with the Law "On Copyright and Related Rights" that provides that it is the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine and not SDIP that is vested with the power to supervise the activities of CMOs and methodologically assist them.
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