Russia to Establish Special IP Court by February 1, 2013

Last month Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed two laws related to the creation of the Court for Intellectual Property Rights in Russia, a specialized arbitration court for IP disputes to be established by February 1, 2013.

The two laws introduced amendments to the following regulations:

• On the Judicial System of the Russian Federation;
• On Arbitration Courts in the Russian Federation;
• On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation;
• The Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation;
• The Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The jurisdiction of the IP court will inter alia include the following:

• Pre-term termination of trademark’s legal protection due to non-use, now under the jurisdiction of the Patent Disputes Chamber of the Russia’s Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent);
• Challenging the antimonopoly authority’s decisions under which the acquisition of the exclusive right for means of individualization of a legal person, production, works, and services and enterprises was recognized as an act of unfair competition;
• Determining patent holders;

Disputes related to copyright, neighboring rights and topologies of integrated microcircuits will be settled by other courts, as it was before the amendments were introduced. However, the new IP court will act as the court of cassation for such cases.

For more information, please contact Yuriy Karlash at our Ukraine office.

Source: Russian government’s website