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Amendments to the Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

Amendments to the Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation June 26, 2019

Amendments to the Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

The Federal Law No. 549-FL as of December 27, 2018 "On Amendments to the Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation" (on state registration of industrial designs) entered into force today.

According to the Law, the main changes in the Civil Code are implementation of a publication of data on design application at the applicant's request and establishment of the temporary legal protection of an industrial design application. Thus, the temporary legal protection will be effective from the publication of data on industrial design application in the official bulletin of Rospatent till the date of publication of data on issuance of a patent. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the applicants will be able to claim compensation for the violation only after state registration of industrial design.

Previously, the legal protection of the industrial design was provided only after its official registration. Due to the fact that the registration process lasts 20.5 months, this method of protecting intellectual property rights was ineffective in the rapidly developing economy of the country. It may be assumed that amendments implemented into the Law would increase the number of industrial design applications in Russia and reduce the number of violations of intellectual property rights.