Intellectual property right issues in Russia

Recent years have seen rapid developments in the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Russia, which has also become party to a number of major international IPR conventions. Russia has, in many respects, elaborate IPR legislation largely corresponding to western legislation, the differences being found in registration obligations applying to licence agreements, for example. As the national agency for trademarks and patents, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent) runs a few regional offices. While the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy are in charge of IPR legislation, Rospatent provides its expertise to these ministries. Rospatent has also issued regulations with legal force inferior to Acts, governing intellectual property rights.

For several years now, the Finnish (e.g. the National Board of Patents and Registration) and Russian authorities have co-operated in the field of intellectual property rights, chiefly based on training for officials and business executives, as well as the exchange of information. The Ministry of Employment and the Economy seeks to place an ever-increasing emphasis on issues related to the protection of intellectual property rights in Russia. In this respect, issues of special importance include the settlement of disputes related to intellectual property rights encountered by Finnish companies, IRP compliance and the efficient implementation of IPR measures.