Vasil Kisil and Partners and PressCom Win the Case Representing KFC and Pesto Café over Collecting Remuneration for Public Performance of Phonograms in Restaurants

Vasil Kisil & Partners has successfully represented PressCom in court in the case against Ukrainian League of Copyright and Related Rights (ULCRR).
PressCom is a company that provides audio content to commercial facilities (restaurants, shops, etc.). Some clients of the company have received lawsuits from ULCRR for recovery of lost profits for public performance of phonograms in facilities.

Vasil Kisil & Partners’ intellectual property team consisting of Ilarion Tomarov, attorney-at-law, counsel, and Daria Romashchenko, attorney-at-law, associate, has represented in court PressCom and its clients: Testi Food (KFC restaurants chain) and Bastet Fem (Pesto Cafe restaurants chain). Defendants entered into remuneration agreements with a representative of the rights holders. The rights holders withdrew their rights from management of ULCRR. Therefore, ULCRR did not have the right to file such lawsuit.

The Northern Commercial Court of Appeal by reviewing the decisions of the court of first instance dismissed claims to Testi Food (KFC) and Bastet Fem (Pesto Cafe). ULCRR is in fact a royalty collector and such funds are not its income, therefore the remuneration is not CMO`s lost profits. Therefore, ULCRR has no right to file a lawsuit for lost profits recovery without an authorization rights from specific rights holders. As a result, ULCRR dropped its new lawsuits filed against other PressCom clients