IP protection of Russian companies abroad and foreign rights holders in Russia was discussed at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry

On October 10, a meeting of the working group on improving IP legislation and law enforcement practice of the IP Council of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held.

Sergey Zuykov, Head of the working group, Managing Partner of Zuykov and partners, Inna Polyanskaya, IP lawyer, and Yulia Gurieva, Managing Partner of Seven Hills Legal, spoke on the topic of IP protection of companies that have exited Russia, as well as on legal challenges to IP protection of Russian companies abroad.

Some theses of the speakers:

• The Russian Federation has not withdrawn from any international convention, treaty or agreement on IP and complies with them. Basically, the problems of foreign copyright holders are related to the money transfers.
• In most cases, unsubstantiated statements about the "abuse" of their right by the copyright holder who left the Russian market are rejected by the courts. According to the decision of the IP Court, following the trademark owner's regime of sanctions against Russia, established by any state without international legal procedure and in contradiction with international treaties, in relation to the Russian market can be considered as unfair behavior.
• According to the 8th package of EU sanctions, the EU patent and trademark offices, as well as the courts, refuse to commit any actions to Russian persons under sanctions.
• The new sanctions do not prevent European lawyers from representing the interests of Russian organizations in national courts, IP offices or EUIPO regarding the registration/maintenance of trademarks. However, legal opinions that are not directly related to judicial or administrative matters are prohibited (for example, trademark search or consultation).
• Current problems in countries with anti-Russian sanctions: finding attorneys willing to work with Russian companies or founders related to Russia, as well as paying bills.

Further, within the framework of the meeting, the problem of registration of composite trademarks was considered. Maria Karabanova, the chief state expert on IP of the Department of support for the provision of public services related to means of individualization (Federal Institute of Industrial Property), spoke on the issue. Olga Tereshchenko, Dean of the RGAIS Faculty of Law, presented a report on the development of the methodology of legal protection of a trademark. Pavel Galchenko, an intellectual property lawyer, and Oksana Beresneva, a patent attorney, also spoke on the issue of a composite trademark. Inna Polyanskaya highlighted the issue of agreements on the coexistence of trademarks.

In the third part of the meeting, the experts addressed the topic of the EAEU trademark. Olga Tereshchenko and Asemgul Abenova, Head of the Industrial Designs Department of the Examination Department of the Eurasian Patent Office, spoke about the current state of the EAEU trademark and the prospects for the formation of a regional system of legal protection of trademarks based on the EAPO.

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Source: Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry