Changing the legal regime of state intellectual property registries to ensure national security and defense

Open state registers, which previously served as a tool for transparency, have become a source of intelligence for the enemy in the context of russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine. The legislature has taken measures to strengthen information security, including in the field of intellectual property. On November 18, 2025, the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Civil Code of Ukraine and Certain Other Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Specifics of Providing Information from Public Electronic Registers Maintained by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and Certain Other Public Electronic Registers” No. 4576-IX of August 21, 2025, came into force. An analysis of the provisions of this Law reveals problems that may become obstacles to the enforcement of its provisions in practice, pose a challenge to the state system of intellectual property protection, law enforcement agencies, and potentially pose a threat to the subjective rights of individuals and legal entities to information, to the protection of the results of intellectual and creative activity, and to the protection of the corresponding intellectual property rights. It was concluded that the adoption of Law 4576 was an important step towards ensuring the national security and defense of Ukraine through strengthening the state’s information security, particularly in the field of intellectual property. At the same time, the legal regulation of the relevant social relations has not been completed, since the analyzed Law contains legal gaps in terms of defining the criteria for linking intellectual property objects to ensuring Ukraine’s national security and defense, as well as in terms of this Law not covering such objects as plant varieties and animal breeds. In addition, the terminology used in the legal norms of Law 4576 is not unified. Taken together, this affects the unambiguous understanding of the legal norms of the studied Law in terms of their clarity, accuracy, accessibility for understanding and implementation, as well as the predictability (foreseeability) of the results of their implementation. The article proposes steps to improve the relevant legislation. The issues raised in the study are not only of theoretical but also of direct practical importance for the activities of state authorities, NIPOs, law enforcement agencies, and intellectual property rights holders, which determines their scientific and applied relevance.