Integration of Marketplaces with Government Agencies to Protect IP Rights

The problem of infringement of intellectual property rights on marketplaces

At the moment, the marketplace's business model is the most convenient platform for buyers and sellers, as a digital platform of a global online shopping centre, where the widest range of products from many different sellers is presented.

At the same time, this state of affairs has a negative result: the number of product cards (offers for sale) on large sites is in the millions, which objectively complicates the possibility of moderation and unwittingly creates an environment for violation of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The most common violations of IP rights on marketplaces are:

• Illegal use of trademarks, for example, the use of someone else's designation (brand) without the consent of the right holder, by placing it in the product card;
• Sale of counterfeit goods (fakes of well-known brands);
• Using someone else's content, for example, photos/videos of goods, without the consent of the content copyright holders.

Until now, the main tool of marketplaces to combat IP infringements has been reactive measures – responding to complaints from copyright holders, who independently identified violations by monitoring offers on the electronic platform. Upon receipt of relevant complaints, the marketplace suspended (blocked) the cards of the disputed goods until the circumstances were clarified. However, given the scale of marketplaces, this method of protection has shown insufficient effectiveness.

Taking into account these and other problems associated with the activities of platform economy entities, the key of which are marketplaces, a number of measures are being taken at the state level aimed at regulating the relevant relations. In terms of initiatives and innovations related to the protection and enforcement of IP rights on marketplaces, the following can be noted:

Integration of marketplaces with Rospatent

According to the order of the Government of the Russian Federation, from April 2026, marketplaces are provided with direct access to Rospatent's information resources (registers), which contain complete information about the following IP objects:

• Trademarks - registered designations that individualise the product (brands, logos);
• Inventions and utility models - patented technical solutions;
• Industrial designs – patented solutions that determine the appearance (design) of an industrial or handicraft product;
• Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origin – registered designations that allow the identification of goods, the characteristics or special properties of which depend on the geographical environment (regional brands).

The purpose of Rospatent's integration with marketplaces is to provide marketplaces with the opportunity to independently verify the existence and ownership of intellectual property rights, which will reduce (prevent) the circulation of counterfeit products and strengthen the protection of the rights of copyright holders.

According to Rospatent, marketplaces will be able to quickly identify and block offers that violate intellectual rights, as well as quickly resolve disputes between sellers and copyright holders. This measure is part of a comprehensive strategy to create a secure digital trading environment.

It is assumed that the integration will become an effective measure of proactive protection, providing marketplaces with the ability to identify and block offers for the sale of counterfeit goods in automatic mode at the stage of uploading information about the product (product card) by the seller before its publication.

In addition, it is assumed that integration with Rospaten will simplify reactive protection measures for marketplaces on complaints from copyright holders and speed up the resolution of disputes. In particular, it will allow marketplaces not to wait for the parties to the dispute to submit supporting documents, but to independently check the information from official sources.

At the same time, access to the registers of Rospatent may also mean an expansion of the boundaries of liability of marketplaces for infringement of intellectual property rights. The bottom line is that in most cases, marketplaces are recognized as information intermediaries who are not responsible for the violation of intellectual property rights on their sites, if they did not know and should not have known about the violation (Article 1253.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). It is logical to assume that the fact that marketplaces have the opportunity to conduct an independent proactive check may be regarded by the courts as an obligation to know about the violation, at least in relation to those product cards that are uploaded by sellers after integration. In this case, marketplaces will have to answer to copyright holders for infringement of IP rights along with direct infringers.

Integration of marketplaces with Roszdravnadzor

Separately, we note the integration of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare and the largest marketplaces (Wildberries, Yandex.Market, Megamarket and Ozon). As noted on the website of Roszdravnadzor, in order to jointly combat counterfeiting, marketplaces are provided with access to the Register of Information on Medical Devices and Organisations Engaged in Their Production and Manufacture.

Thus, from 01.10.2025, the cards of goods of medical devices are supplemented with information on the state registration of medical devices, and the cards placed before 01.10.2025 are routinely updated by sellers, taking into account integration with the Register. Thus, buyers get the opportunity to check the authenticity of goods by clicking on a direct link to the Roszdravnadzor website, and the marketplace that detects counterfeit - independently or after the request of the copyright holder, consumer or government agencies - blocks such an offer on its resource.

This initiative was voluntarily implemented by marketplaces as part of the industry's self-regulation. However, from October 2026, marketplaces will be required to check offers for the sale of medical devices (product cards) before they are published in order to proactively block counterfeit goods.