Unfair competition in the context of intellectual property was discussed at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry

On October 11, a meeting of the Working Group on promoting business in the development of intellectual property in the regions was held, which was attended by representatives of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Rospatent, regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry and business circles, as well as patent attorneys.

Dmitry Fadeev, Chairman of the Russian Chamber of Commerce Council on Intellectual Property, spoke at the opening of the meeting, dwelling on some examples of judicial practice on unfair competition and abuse of rights. Mr. Fadeev informed the participants about the next XV International Forum "Intellectual Property - XXI Century" from April 25 to 27, 2023.

The head of the Working Group, Ruslan Malkov, drew the attention of the participants to the fact that objects of intellectual property are often used in two ways. The topical issue, in his opinion, is the line between the protection of intellectual property rights and their use as a tool of unfair competition. In his report, Ruslan Malkov analyzed in detail the options for hidden unfair competition, and also provided court statistics for 2022 in cases of illegal use of trademarks.

Sergey Zuykov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Intellectual Property, opened the topic of collecting compensation for violation of rights to means of individualization. Collection of compensation on a large scale, in his opinion, is the way to combat unfair competition. He also noted that registration should be carried out on all intellectual property objects possible for the company in order to increase the level of protection of its intellectual rights. However, do not forget that this method is not a complete guarantee of protection against unfair competition. In this direction, joint systematic work with FAS Russia and the IP Court is needed.

Yana Sklyarova, a representative of the FAS Russia, Deputy Head of the Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition, noted that the extensive claims that come to the FAS Russia regarding trademarks are most often not considered. The FAS Russia, first of all, is of public interest, and not of a private right holder. Also at the meeting of the Working Group, Alexander Slepenkov, Deputy Head of the Department of Legal Representation of Rospatent, spoke about the practice of applying the decisions of the FAS Russia and the IP Court and revealed problems in defining the concepts of “competitive relations”.

During the discussion, business representatives were able to ask their questions to representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia and Rospatent, share their experience and develop recommendations. It was decided to separately analyze the topic of unfair competition in the field of copyright and other intellectual property objects in addition to means of individualization.

Source: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia