From avatars to intellectual property rights: Ukraine wants to legalize personal symbols
24 November 2025 22:28
Every Ukrainian will be able to have his or her own coat of arms as a legally recognized element of personal identity – this is what a new bill to update the Civil Code provides for. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the draft law No. 14057 on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
This is not a random drawing, but a personal or family coat of arms that will have a clearly defined status. The document proposes to stipulate that such a coat of arms should be individual, different from the existing ones and comply with the classical heraldic rules: the construction of the shield, colors, symbols, their combination and content.
It is emphasized that a personal coat of arms cannot contain symbols prohibited by law. That is, images associated with the propaganda of totalitarian regimes, aggressors, terrorist organizations, or any other signs whose production and public use is expressly prohibited in Ukraine are not allowed.
The draft law stipulates that a personal or family coat of arms can be used not only as an element of private identity, but also in public and commercial life. In particular, it will be possible to register it as a trademark or include it in a trademark or other intellectual property object: a company logo, corporate identity, service mark, etc. The registration will be carried out in accordance with the general rules provided for by intellectual property law.
In fact, the draft law creates a new tool for legal protection of personal and family symbols. A person or family will be able not only to create their own coat of arms, but also to officially secure the rights to use it, prohibit outsiders from copying or using it without consent, and in case of violation, demand protection in court.
What else you need to know about the draft law amending the Civil Code (CC)
Ukraine is preparing a major update to the second book of the Civil Code. It is responsible for the personal rights of people and companies. The draft law has already been submitted to the parliament. Its main idea is simple: to bring civil law in line with the realities of the 2020s – digital services, biomedicine, and European human rights standards.
The current rules have hardly been changed for more than 20 years. During this time, laws on personal data, medicine, media, and digital identity have emerged, and the ECHR case law on privacy, dignity, and health has been formed. The Code is still not up to date with this world, so it is being “reassembled.”
From old wording to clear personal rights
Today, the Civil Code uses the Soviet construction of “personal non-property rights.” It hints that the real main thing is property, and everything else is an “appendix.” The new approach proposes to speak simply of “personal rights” and describe them in a clear system.
For individuals, these rights are divided into several blocks. The first concerns what makes a person recognizable: name, signature, photo, voice, biometric and genetic data. The second is the rights related to information and privacy. The third is the freedom of social life, i.e. the ability to live without excessive interference from the state or other people.
Separately, for the first time, the personal rights of legal entities are clearly defined at the level of the Civil Code. This includes the right to name, reputation, symbols, digital image, professional secrecy, confidentiality of correspondence and data.
For business, this means that the company’s brand, reputation, and digital presence will be protected not only by special laws but also by the basic code.
Digital rights: accounts, the “right to be forgotten” and protection against dipfakes
The second major block is digital rights. For the first time, the draft law explicitly describes what people use every day, but which has been legally up in the air until now.
It introduces the right to a digital image. This applies to accounts, profiles, avatars, and other forms of online presence. Theft of a page or creation of a fake profile gets a clear legal dimension.
The right to digital privacy extends not only to the content of correspondence, but also to the digital footprint: search history, geolocation, and technical data. It is proposed to enshrine the “right to be forgotten” at the level of the Civil Code – the ability to demand the removal of false, outdated or illegal information about a person from public access and search engines.
A separate provision is devoted to dipfakes. The use of generated images or voice without the person’s consent will be considered a violation of their rights. For media, advertising agencies, and services working with AI, this means that they will have to carefully check the basis for using such materials.
Another important element is the right to information privacy. Essentially, this is a legal recognition that a person has the right not to answer work calls and messages outside of working hours. For employers, this is a signal that the requirement to be in touch 24/7 can be interpreted as interference with personal life.
Health, treatment and reproductive rights
A separate set of changes concerns medicine and biomedicine. The Constitutional Court wants to clearly define the right to health, medical and rehabilitation care, reproductive rights, donation and transplantation.
The key topic here is informed consent. The draft law describes in detail how it should be provided and withdrawn, depending on the patient’s age and legal capacity. For clinics, the pharmaceutical business, and insurers, this means stricter requirements for documents and transparency of interaction with patients.
It also clarifies the rules for the use of assisted reproductive technologies and donor materials, which is important for private reproductive medicine centers and companies working with biotechnology.
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Dignity, violence and rights after death
The updated Book Two of the Civil Code places the right to dignity at the center of the system. Protection against physical, mental and psychological violence is strengthened. The rights to bodily and mental integrity are separately emphasized. This is consistent with the practice of the ECHR, where human dignity is considered the foundation of the entire system of rights.
Another important innovation is the so-called post-transitional rights, i.e. rights after death. Relatives and friends will be able to officially protect the good name of a deceased person, demand a refutation of false information, and control the use of their name, image, or personal materials. For media and productions, this means additional restrictions when working with real stories and characters.
The drafters of the bill insist that these changes do not require additional spending from the state budget. Instead, they should create a more predictable environment for the digital economy, innovative services, and investments.
The point is to increase legal certainty in areas where there are currently many “gray areas”: personal and biometric data, online communication, medicine, and the use of information and content.
For Ukraine, which declares its movement towards the EU, the updated book two of the Civil Code can become a basic tool for rapprochement with European approaches and a signal to business: human rights and the protection of intangible assets cease to be an abstraction and receive a stricter legal framework.
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