World Intellectual Property - IP Laws - Russia
Enforcement of IP Rights:
Russia is going to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to make improvement of IP rights protection as well as enforcement of IP rights on priority basis to harmonize its IP laws with those of the west. Highlight of different IP rights regulations and developments as well as an analysis of IP enforcement procedures is as follows:
Trade Marks:
Trade marks are governed jointly by the Law of the Russian Federation on Trade Marks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods. Under this law only registered trade marks are protected in Russia. Foreigners may obtain registration and protection on the basis of international conventions viz. Paris Convention and Berne Convention. A trade mark registered in Russia must be used within three years of registration and it may be subject to cancellation if not used for prescribed period or more consecutively. In the event of cancellation, any party may apply to the Patent Dispute Chamber to seek cancellation of a registered trade mark that has not been used. However, many trade mark owners have encountered problems with trade mark squatters - companies or individuals that register famous trade marks that have not been registered or cancelled in Russia. Since such actions are not indicative of any intention actually to make use of the trade mark but are aimed at selling it to the true owner for a compensation paid to unscrupulous persons, the Law on Trade Marks cannot help in such a situation. However, some steps are being taken to counter unscrupulous actions by the Federal Antimonopoly Service which rule on cancellation of a trade mark that has not been registered in bona fide way.
Copyright and Recent Developments:
Copyrights in Russia are governed by the Law on Copyright and Allied Rights. The copyrights ned not be registered in order to be protected; the rights exist and are entitled to protection from the time of its creation. However, some amendments were passed extending the protection term from 50 to 70 years after the author's death.
Patent:
Patent protection is governed by the Patent Law which offers protection to inventions, utility models and industrial designs. If an invention is found to be not patentable, the applicant has six months from the time of the decision to file an appeal with the Chamber for Patent Disputes. Also, a patent can be challenged at any time during the validity of the patent and if patent owner fails to make sufficient use of a patented invention within four years of its approval, the patented item can become subject to a compulsory licensing action brought by a person willing and ready to use the patented invention on a non-exclusive basis. However, deficiencies remain areas such as patenting of products in open use outside Russia which attracts unscrupulous entrepreneurs to file applications for products that are in open use and then demand payment from companies trying to sell these products in Russia.
IP enforcement:
There are three methods for confronting intellectual property infringers viz. civil, administrative and penal methods. Under civil method, action may be brought against either the manufacturer or distributors of goods to cease and desist from infringement of a trade mark owner's rights in the form of a ban on the manufacture, distribution and advertising counterfeit goods, compensation in case of copyright infringement for double the price of the infringed works, to remove designations which infringe trade mark rights, confiscate counterfeit goods, to publish the judgment following the action brought by an IP owner and for moral harm caused to the author. However, the adverse aspect of the civil method is its low efficiency in confronting small firms on the one hand and on the other it is hard to gather proof to determine the sales volume of the counterfeits and the extent of the losses incurred by the IP owners. Administrative method consists in filing an application with the law enforcement agencies for violation of the Code on Administrative Offences that rule on copyright, patent and trade mark infringements. This method is an effective way of combating counterfeits distributed by small retailers. If counterfeit goods are imported into Russia, an efficient way to decrease the flow of these imports is to register the owner's trade marks with the Federal Customs Service which is administered under this method. In such cases the Customs authorities shall initiate administrative proceedings in relation to the importation of counterfeit goods. However, the main task of the FAS is to fight unfair competition, which often involves transactions with goods/services accompanied by unlawful use of IP rights and to initiate an administrative investigation, which may result offender cease distribution and advertising of the relevant goods and in the levying of a fine.
Under penal method, if serious infringements of copyrights, patents and trade mark constitute crimes envisaged, it may be brought to the notice of the law enforcement agencies for initiation of criminal proceedings under Criminal Code. Practice shows that the most effective way to fight counterfeit goods is a combination of the afore-mentioned methods. For example, in the event of presence on the market of obvious imitations of goods it is possible to initiate administrative proceedings against retailers, and criminal proceedings against wholesalers and manufacturers of counterfeit goods, accompanied by civil actions brought against them. As a result, it is possible to punish the offenders by putting a ban on their activities, destroying the counterfeit goods and levying reimbursement for losses.
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