Key Issues in the Intellectual Property Court’s Presidium Rulings

Abstract

The comment reviews key positions in the rulings of the Presidium of the Russian Intellectual Property Court (IPC) issued in December 2021 and January 2022. This Chamber hears cassation appeals against the decisions of the IPC first instance and deals primarily, but not only, with matters of registration and validity of industrial property rights. Therefore, this review predominantly covers substantive requirements for patent and trademark protection, as well as procedural issues both in the administrative adjudicating mechanism at the Patent office (Rospatent) and at the IPC itself.The current review encompasses a variety of topics related to trademark law: signs that are contrary to the public interest, signs conflicting with an earlier trademark or an appellation of origin, signs using a geographical name, deceptive signs, the comparison of signs, trademark revocation for lack of use, unfair competition, procedural challenges, etc. The review further considers one patent case, in which the IPC Presidium resolved the issue of establishing priority date for a divisional application for a utility model derived from an application initially filed for an invention.