photo: © Markus Winkler, unsplash
As a consequence of the economic sanctions imposed by some countries to Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, on March the 6th the Russian government issued Decree No. 299, authorising the lifting of intellectual property rights. This mechanism allows the expropriation of IP rights, similar to a compulsory licence.
This is possible as the Russian Civil Code foresees, for situations of extreme necessity associated with supporting the defence and security of the state, that the government can lift third parties’ Intellectual Property rights without the right holder’s consent, allegedly for “proportional” compensation. However, the Decree implies that the amount of the compensation would be of 0%, for companies or natural persons which are registered, are nationals or have their business in a so-called “hostile country”.
In this way, Russian companies or even natural persons, will be able to use inventions which until last week were protected in Russia under patents, utility models or designs.
Namely, if an invention was patented in Russia but is owned by a foreign owner which falls into the above-mentioned list, this invention is susceptible of being used in the Russian territory, without requesting any authorisation, nor compulsory licence, nor paying any compensation. This also entails, in the above-mentioned cases, the impossibility to sue infringers before Russian Courts and consequently, this prevents right holders from claiming damages.
At this moment, the Decree does not mention trade marks, but it is likely that due to big companies’ withdrawal from the country, the government could authorise local manufacturers to take over the production and the use of the trade mark, in order to face the shortage of goods. Moreover nothing prevents national Courts from applying the provisions of the Decree by analogy.