Russian government body created to regulate intellectual property theft

A subcommittee has been created by the Russian authorities to regulate the use of foreign intellectual property in Russia without the consent of patent holders, state-affiliated news outlet RBC reported on Thursday.

The move follows instructions issued to the government by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February to set up a structure to regulate the granting of permission to use foreign intellectual property in Russia without the consent of the patent holders as the country continues its drift away from the rules-based international order.

While patent holders’ intellectual property rights would be unilaterally withdrawn in Russia, RBC stressed that patent holders would be notified of decisions affecting their intellectual property as soon as possible and would receive unspecified “compensation”.

The Economic Development Ministry has justified the move by saying that “when companies from unfriendly states have left the Russian market, in a number of exceptional cases, permission is required to use inventions, utility models and industrial designs”.

Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Vasily Osmakov told RBC that the commission would help Russia “achieve technological sovereignty” and that it had been created to help Russian manufacturers “protect against the risk of supply interruption and licence refusals by foreign copyright holders”.