IP now has its own court in Russia

At last it has happened. The organisation of an IP court in Russia was discussed for a number of years. Convincing arguments were put forward in favour. However despite the fact that no opposition was put forward, the process of taking decisions and actual organisation of the court was not hurried.

The basic decision was taken back in 2011. After a number of developments, some steps were made and the location of the court was decided. But there was some time before the court could recruit the required number of judges. Now there are 16 judges allowing the court to start examination of cases. It is expected that the full body of judges will one day be 30.

July 3 2013 was the date on which the IP Court started functioning formally. The first case was heard on August 6 with Gorodissky & Partners representing one of the parties. In fact, this has become the beginning of the routine work of the Court. On July 19, there were 33 cases waiting for examination. On August 19 the number of cases grew to 163! Considering that only some three weeks had passed since the opening, the Court will not be idle. It may be expected that hundreds of cases will find their way to the new court. These may not be all new cases.

On July 17, the Federal Commercial Court of the Moscow Circuit considered a cassation complaint. The case had been initially considered in 2012 and went through a number of instances. The concerned party filed a cassation complaint on July 5 2013 in a regular commercial court. However, since the IP Court started its work on July 3 2013, the Commercial Court passed on the complaint to the IP Court where it will be examined in due course.

Hence the IP Court is now on the same footing as other commercial courts. The judges of the Court are all experienced judges with impressive backgrounds in examining IP cases. They were recruited from other commercial courts, some of them with legal and technical backgrounds. The chairperson of the court is Ljudmila Novoselova, a former judge from the Supreme Commercial Court with more than 20 years of experience.

The Court examines complaints against all kinds of official actions of the Patent Office (inventions, trade marks, designs, etc), complaints against the decisions of the Antimonopoly Body on unfair competition cases and non-use trade mark cases. All these issues will be considered by the Court in its capacity as the first instance court regardless of the status of the parties (in regular commercial and common courts legal persons apply to commercial courts, private persons apply to common courts). The first instance decisions of the court will be appealed in the same court to its presidium.

The cases concerning infringement of IP rights remain the responsibility of the commercial courts. However their decisions will be appealed to the IP Court.

The IP Court has technical experts on the payroll who will give technical advice to the judges. This though does not preclude the judges from ordering technical expertise from outside experts.

It is expected that the organisation of the IP Court will greatly enhance the examination of conflicts in the IP field.