Ukraine has seized the trademarks of the American company HBO due to non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Lyudmila Ignatenko. The woman, whose story was used in the miniseries «Chernobyl,» won a lawsuit for the illegal use of her name last year, but has still not received the compensation awarded in the amount of UAH 500,000.
Ukraine has seized the trademarks of the American company HBO due to non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Lyudmila Ignatenko. The woman, whose story was used in the miniseries «Chernobyl,» won a lawsuit for the illegal use of her name last year, but has still not received the compensation awarded in the amount of UAH 500,000.
This was reported by the Mamunya IP law firm, which represents Ms. Ignatenko in the courts. According to the lawyers, despite the final court ruling issued in November 2025, the media giant has not paid the victim compensation for moral damage.
Lyudmila Ignatenko is the widow of firefighter Vasyl Ignatenko, who was one of the first to put out the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986. She turned to lawyers in 2020 because the creators of the series «Chernobyl» did not ask permission to use her name and the name of her husband. According to the woman, some scenes involving her character do not correspond to reality, which creates a false impression of a real person.
«According to the Civil Code of Ukraine, the use of the names of real persons in non-documentary works without their consent is prohibited. We agreed to represent Lyudmila Ignatenko’s interests on a pro bono basis in Ukrainian courts and in 2020 filed a lawsuit, in particular, against HBO,» Mamunya IP noted.
The trial lasted for over 5 years and ended in November 2025 with a ruling by the Supreme Court, which finally confirmed the violation of Ignatenko’s rights to use her name and awarded her UAH 500,000. Currently, HBO has not complied with the court’s decision and has not paid the awarded compensation, Mamunya IP notes.
The lawyers explained that since HBO ignored the court’s decision, as part of the enforcement proceedings, private executor Andriy Avtorgov seized the company’s intellectual property rights in Ukraine. The next stage may be to put the trademarks up for sale through auction in order to use the proceeds to repay the debt to Lyudmila Ignatenko.
Recall that on the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, a dev.ua journalist spoke about his father, Serhiy Mykolayovych, who spent almost three years in the Zone of Alienation, working as a liquidator driver. He saw the first refugees from Pripyat, the incomparable nature of the Zone, hid radioactive equipment under tons of concrete and played music on the piano for his fellow liquidators. Currently, Mykolayovych is an avid gamer, and his favorite game is the cult series STALKER, where he returns to familiar landscapes again and again.
