Ukraine should create an intellectual property protection system which will be equal to the protection afforded to private property, managing partner at AVentures company Andriy Kolodiuk has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"Intellectual property is an important issue for IT investors. Yes, laws should be slightly revised, and they may not be changed, but simply observed. We should make it so that an intellectual property protection system equal to the protection of private property starts working," he said.

He said that the State Intellectual Property Service, which is the service responsible, is working inefficiently, due to amongst other reasons corruption.

"We make the issue point-blank. We propose an action plan, according to which state authorities jointly with law enforcers bring order to this area. Legal payers are not under equal conditions with illegal ones, as the first [group] pay royalties to right holders which are 50-80% of expenses, while illegal ones function in the same way and do not pay money at all," he said.

Kolodiuk said that 30% to 50% of the TV and video content sector is under the control of illegal market players, and that damage to the state and right holders amounts to around UAH 1 billion a year.