Experts: intellectual property in Russia is under protection

As per tradition, the Russian-Swiss Forum organized the Russian Lawgal Week in Zurich in September. Representatives of the public authorities from Europe and Russia, large Russian and international law firms, corporate lawyers and patent attorneys took part in the event. Advocate Denis Shumskiy, Associates Andrey Astanin, Yuliya Karpova, Igor Kostennikov and Ekaterina Motyvan represented the Law Firm "YUST".

The forum’s breakaway sessions included:

• An introduction into the Swiss legal system;
• Legal basics for the operations of foreign companies in Switzerland;
• Main points of the Swiss tax law and the tendencies of international tax planning;
• Practice of private arbitration practice in Switzerland, in particular – the Court for Sports Arbitration in Lausanne (CAS);
• Legal consequences of customs unions and of Russia’s entry to the WTO for right owners.

The event’s program is available here:

The discussion organized with the help from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property on the matter of delimitation of competencies between the Federal Service on Intellectual Property of Russia (Rospatent) and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia in the sphere of intellectual property protection was one of the most avid. Rospatent was represented by its heard Boris Simonov and director of its International Cooperation Department Zaurbek Albegonov. They shared with those present their analysis of the current situation with the protection of intellectual property in Russia and the strategy of development of that sphere of law. See the official release for more information.

In his turn, Advocate Denis Shumskiy of the Law Firm "YUST" shared some examples from the Russian practice of how right owners may safeguard their rights to results of international activity. He briefly surveyed the extrajudicial and judicial procedures available in Russia and told about the possibilities opened for right holders in connection with the implementation of electronic justice system in the Russian courts and the adoption of the so-called Anti-Piracy Law (Federal Law No. 187-FZ dated 02.07.2013).

Stefan Koler, Partner of Vischer Ltd. Abdocates’ bureau, paid attention to the problem of contractual jurisdiction and copyright protection of Russian right owners in the territory of Switzerland. His colleague, patent attorney of La Roche company Johann Beyermann suggested that the members of the session consider the peculiarities of patent protection in the pharmacological industry on an example.

The participants inquired the experts regarding the matters of know-how protection in Russia, collection of evidence after the discovery of a fact of breach of rights to an invention and other objects of intellectual property, competence of the recently created court on intellectual property.

The Forum materials and announcements of similar events are available at the official site of the organizers.