Litigation
IP protection is related with different kinds of legal structures: for the creation or the recognition of rights, the proceedings are mainly administrative; but the question of those rights’ protections can be divided in different fields of competence: criminal, civil, commercial and also administrative.
Administrative litigations:
There are three major administrative authorities dealing with IP matters in Russia: the Patent Dispute Chamber / the Court of IP Rights, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) and the Customs authorities. Although some of these courts are administrative, any of their decisions may be challenged through civil courts.
The Patent Dispute Chamber
A new legislation enacted in 2002 created for the ROSPATENT (Russian Federal Patent and Trademark Office) the Patent Dispute Chamber, a special administrative court responsible for the resolution of certain kinds of disputes.
The jurisdiction of the Patent Dispute Chamber includes:
appeals of ROSPATENT’s examiner decisions denying or granting legal protection to inventions, industrial designs and trademarks
requests for recognition of trademarks as well known
request for invalidation of patents and cancellation of trademarks
The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service
This administrative authority is competent for the prohibition of any actions, such as the illicit use of intellectual property, which could be qualified as acts of unfair competition.
The decision of FAS recognizing an unfair competition could be used then as grounds for the ROSPATENT to cancel the trademark registration.
The Customs authorities
According to legal system, which came into force in 2004, precise procedure for IP protection has been set. The customs authorities have now the possibility to suspend import or export of counterfeit and parallel import goods written in a special register by the IP owner.
Civil litigations:
In the field of civil law there are two court systems, to which IP cases are referred: the Arbitrtion Court (or commercial court) and the General Courts system.
The Arbitration Court has jurisdiction over economic disputes involving legal entities and registered sole proprietors. Most cases in relation with IP rights are heard in this court, because generally one of the litigants is a legal entity or sole proprietor.
The General Courts deal normally just with the private disputes, for example copyright or patent disputes.
The common legal actions made in these courts are the followings:
Criminal litigations:
Infringements of IP rights are considered criminal offences by the Russian Criminal Code and are under the jurisdiction of Criminal Court of justice.
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