Law news

A new law on patent attorneys went in force on December 21,2022. Several important novelties have been introduced.

Amendments have been introduced in the Civil Code regarding procedural matters in connection with protection of inventions, designs, appellations of origin and geographical indications to make them comply with international agreements. These are Patent Cooperation Treaty, Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement regarding registration of industrial designs and Geneva Act of Lisbon Agreement regarding appellations of origin and geographical indications.

The new law No 488-ФЗ dated December 05, 2022 provides that geographical indications may be included in the customs register. Before that, only trademarks, appellations of origin, copyrights and neighboring rights could be included in the register. The GI owner will be notified by the customs if allegedly counterfeit goods are declared at the customs.

The law on Amendments to Article 1363 of Part IV of the Civil Code was adopted on October 7, 2022  (№ 386-ФЗ). The law gives additional grounds for challenging extension of a patent and challenging validity of the supplemental patent granted for that extension. The law becomes effective from October 18, 2022.

The Law No 193-ФЗ of June 28, 2022 allows registration of trademarks by private persons not being individual entrepreneurs. On the other hand, termination of the status of individual entrepreneur does not entail cancellation of his trademarks. Nor is it necessary that the heir has a status of individual entrepreneur. The law will come in force on June 29, 2023