In July, the Russian Supreme Court published its second review of court practice for 2026. Below is an overview of the Court’s approach to some IP and unfair competition issues.
1.Registration of the trademark rights transfer in the event of the trademark owner’s bankruptcy
It is necessary to distinguish between the moment a trademark assignment agreement is concluded and the moment those rights are transferred, since the transfer of trademark rights occurs from the moment of state registration with the Russian PTO (Rospatent), rather than upon execution of the agreement. In the absence of such registration, the transfer of rights is deemed not to have taken place.
As of the date an entity is recognized as a bankrupt by the court, all rights with respect to its assets shall be exercised exclusively by the financial manager.
Since the registration of the exclusive rights had not been completed before the trademark owner was recognized bankrupt, the trademarks became part of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate, notwithstanding the fact that the assignment agreement had been concluded earlier.
Accordingly, from the date on which an individual is recognized insolvent (bankrupt), registration of the trademark rights transfer is not permitted in the absence of an application filed by the financial manager.
2.Bringing a generic on the market before a patent to the original medicine expiry can be considered an unfair competition action
The commercialization by a company of a generic medicine containing an active ingredient present in the patent holder’s original medicine can constitute an infringement of the rights holder’s exclusive rights.
An out-of-court expert opinion established that the generic medicine contains each feature of the independent claims of the invention’s set of claims from the patent owned by the rights holder. No forensic examination was appointed in the case.
The unlawful use of another party’s IP rights for bringing a product to the Russia market may damage the rights holder’s economic interests even in the absence of direct competition in the market, for example where the rights holder derives profit through a network of official distributors. Accordingly, the existence of competitive relations in the market is not a necessary condition for a finding of unfair competition.