Ukrainians Roman Kirdanov and Aleksey Rozenkov launched intellectual property marketplace UNI.UA (Ukrainian National Intellect). This is a marketplace of objects of Ukrainian art and national heritage. On the website, anyone can buy the rights for commercial use of digitalized copies of paintings, videos and other objects of intellectual property. Therefore, owners of objects of art will be able to monetize their work or private collections.
How did UNI.UA come about
Aleksey Rozenkov and Roman Kirdanov both work in the field of copyright protection. Kirdanov is the managing partner at IPS, a company that develops and implements IP management systems. Rozenkov worked in various companies in this field.
The idea to create a project in the sphere of Ukrainian art came to partners when they noticed that Ukraine is not present in Google Arts & Culture. In 2015, IPS created a record-keeping system for intellectual property, collection, and distribution of royalties, and in 2018, UNI.UA was built on its basis. The project received support from the Ukrainian Cultural Fund.
What is UNI.UA
The online platform consists of three sections:
- Registry of objects of art or national treasure.
- An e-commerce mechanism for the sale of licenses for the use of such objects (royalty collection).
- The mechanism for distribution of royalties between copyright holders.
What is its mission
The mission of UNI.UA is to connect consumers with copyright holders. Moreover, not only in the Ukrainian market but internationally. As the founders of the project put it, currently there are many intermediaries between the parties, which makes the working mechanism long and opaque. The marketplace will bring them face to face.
UNI.UA marketplace allows authors to earn money off their work and make themselves known to the world. And museums and owners of private collections can monetize their wealth.
Roman Kirdanov comments:
“According to the Ministry of Culture, in Ukraine, there are 3,000 museums – of which only 4 are digitized. That is, the majority of objects of creativity do not have digital copies for reproduction. All documentation is in hard copies only.
Movie archives – more than 60 km of film. Such objects have their own lifespan, even if all storage conditions are met. Digital copies are a more reliable way to preserve the country’s cultural heritage.
In the Ukrainian archives, you can stumble upon records of Sosyura reciting his poems, audiobooks of Agatha Christie with a licensed British translation, unique shots of the Lumiere brothers… We know that theoretically, it is there, but we have never seen it. All these objects must be carefully protected from the risk of physical destruction and they should be made available to the public.
In the modern world, the value of cultural heritage remains uncertain, because the product itself is missing. However, having digital copies of objects, we are able to promote them as a product and create additional value.”
Monetization
The marketplace acts as a Proxy in the transaction between the copyright holder and the consumer, and for performing this function it receives 10% of the cost of the purchased license, half the price of the current market.
What can you buy on UNI.UA
Today, the platform works with four basic types of intellectual property: music, audiovisual works, photographs and paintings (digital copies).
The Ukrkinohronika SE, Odessa Art Museum, Rokstar LLC and private photographers have already put their digital copies up on the site. The founders also encourage Ukrainian museums, galleries, publishers, and production studios to collaborate.
Who can buy such licenses
Anyone for commercial (production studios, advertising agencies, television channels, manufacturers of souvenir products) or non-commercial use (for training, research, etc.).
They will have direct access to digital copies of copyrighted objects online.
How much can objects of art cost
The cost of the license is determined by its owner. Non-commercial use does not require a license, so the price will include only the cost of preparing a digital copy.
“We took into account that the global intellectual property market is worth $182 billion, according to Forbes. This market is one of those that are growing rapidly. It grows at a rate of 20% per year, comments Roman.
Accordingly, authors, in order to determine the cost of their work, must analyze the general data sets in this area, and then do one of the following:
- indicate the price themselves;
- indicate that the price will be negotiable;
- indicate that the price will be determined by the market. Then the system displays the average market price, depending on the region, the features of the object as well as other factors.
Basically, if authors will regularly publish their works, they will quickly understand the cost, based on the existing demand.”
