Zaporizhia-based opened joint-stock company Motor Sich is preparing for the validation of an additional certificate issued by the State Aviation Service of Ukraine to replace the engine of Mi-8T helicopter, in Russia.

Motor Sich Board Chairman Viacheslav Bohuslayev said this at the 8th Aviasvit XXI-2012 International Aerospace Show in Kyiv on September 28, 2012.

He said that the Ukrainian certificate could be validated by the Russian certificate body by late 2012.

"We plan to validate our additional certificate for the replacement of the engine of the Mi-8T helicopter in October," he said.

He denied accusations published in the Russian media that by promoting Ukrainian model of the Mi-8T helicopter with a new engine – the Mi-8 MSB – on the global market, the company was violating ownership rights to the intellectual property of the designer of the Mi-8 – Russia's Mil Design Bureau.

Bohuslayev said that these accusations were "tears."

"The Mi-8 is not certificated, this is a former Soviet helicopter," he said.

"According to legal requirements, ownership rights to intellectual property are confirmed by a patent, and Mil Design Bureau does not have the patent," he said.

He said that under European rules, the patent could be prolonged by the designer twice every 10 years, and in 20 years the products become open to general use.

"We haven't seized anyone's rights, we're not creating our own helicopter, but we're changing the engine: the old TV2-117 to the latest, the TV3-117MA-SBM1V," he said.

Motor Sich said that the company plans to carry out the replacement of the engines of 13 Mi-8Ts at the production facilities of its plant in Orsha (Belarus).

The company said that the potential capacity of the engine-replacement segment for the Mi-8T is assessed at over 2,000 helicopters.

The cost of the replacement of engines of the Mi-8T is around $2-3 million, Bohuslayev said.