Rambler to ask to drop criminal case against Nginx

Rambler management will appeal to law enforcement agencies with a request to terminate the criminal case initiated due to the conflict with Nginx. This decision was made following an extraordinary meeting of the Rambler board of directors, according to a press release received by Meduza.

Rambler also noted that it was terminating its contract with Lynwood Investments , which had contacted law enforcement agencies. The statement emphasized that the company had not informed either Rambler's board of directors or Sberbank (which owns 46.5% of Rambler Group) of this decision in advance. The press release emphasized that the dispute would be resolved in the civil law field in the future.

"In the modern world, situations of disputes over intellectual property rights are common, and for technology companies, protecting their rights is natural, but these issues should be resolved in the civil law plane," said Lev Khasis, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank, in his commentary. He emphasized that the company "has been in contact with the founders of Nginx for several days" to resolve the issue.

The statement also emphasizes that during the deal between Sberbank and Rambler, the bank received guarantees that there would be no grounds for legal proceedings due to intellectual property objects, and that these guarantees were violated in the case of Nginx.

As Sarkis Darbinyan, a partner at the Digital Rights Center, explained to Meduza, Rambler's appeal to law enforcement agencies to close the case will no longer have any effect, since cases initiated under the article on copyright infringement cannot be terminated solely on the basis of reconciliation of the parties. "The investigation may take Rambler's position into account, but will independently assess whether there is a crime in this case," the lawyer said.

• Rambler reported a possible violation of its exclusive rights to the Nginx web server on December 12. On the same day, searches and seizures of documents took place at the home and office of Nginx founders Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov. According to Rambler, the Nginx web server should belong to the Internet holding company, since Sysoev and Konovalov were Rambler employees at the time of its creation. Maxim Konovalov called Rambler's demands "racketeering" in an interview with Meduza.
• Sberbank management has previously criticized the case against Nginx. German Gref, in particular, stated that he "does not like this criminal trial" and expressed confidence that such disputes should be resolved in arbitration court. According to Forbes, it was Gref who insisted on holding an extraordinary meeting of Rambler's board of directors to discuss the situation with Nginx.