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 between January and March 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, such as the assessment of the risk of confusion, invalidity grounds based on a prior well-known trademark or on an appellation of origin, the application of art. 6.septies of the Paris Convention, early termination of the legal protection of a trademark, unfair competition. This review also highlights several procedural points, such as the suspension
of administrative proceeding in parallel trademark litigation and the limits of a third party’s intervention in patent invalidity proceedings. Regarding patents, the review deals with prior art, encompassing unpublished patent applications, and the rules for determining claims’ features.