Registration and licensing of unique insurance databases

Client Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA) (Russia)

Description

The Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA) owns a number of unique information technologies, in particular, home made databases “Directory of average hourly rates for the purpose of calculating expenses for repairing a damaged vehicle”, “Directory of average cost of spare parts for the purpose of calculating expenses for repairing a damaged vehicle” and “Directory of average cost of materials for the purposes of calculating the expenses for repairing a damaged vehicle”.

According to new insurance regulations of the Russian law, RSA had to obtain a state registration of its rights to the said databases and grant the right to use them to third parties by publishing a public offer on the Internet and enter into corresponding license agreements. In order to do that RSA approached Gorodissky & Partners as they have expertise in the field of IP, information technologies and licensing in order to assist RSA in the registration of its databases in the Russian Patent Office and prepare all the necessary documents.

Solution

Experts of Gorodissky & Partners provided exhaustive advice to RSA regarding all legal and regulatory aspects related to protection and registration of databases as copyright and neighboring rights subject-matters, the procedure of their state registration, and preparing a draft license agreement to the registered databases with third parties. In the course of our work with RSA we registered three (3) client’s databases in the Russian Patent office and prepared a draft public offer and a license agreement. Upon preparing a draft license agreement we paid special attention to the issues of ownership of the exclusive right, transfer of physical carriers containing licensed databases and licensees’ (users’) obligations to use the said databases as well as their responsibility for breaching the agreement.

Result

Unique databases were successfully registered in the name of the client, and after that RSA granted a number of licenses to its partners providing them with non-exclusive rights to use the registered databases in accordance with requirements of the new legal regulation in the sphere of insurance. Experts of Gorodissky & Partners provided the full and timely legal assistance to the client in this case and helped RSA to achieve the desired goals. This case is only one of a series of assignments fulfilled in a field where intellectual property and financial issues intersect.