Industrial and intellectual property is used as an economic weapon in the war
- 📌 According to Russia’s decree, any person or company authorized by the Russian government can use a patent owned by a holder from a “non-friendly” country. Such use will not be economically compensated to the legitimate patent holder.
- 📌 In Russia, there is a total of 1,895 patents of Spanish origin between the years 2015 and 2020, according to official WIPO statistics.
- 📌 From 2015 to 2020, according to WIPO, there are in Russia a total of 56,732 patents of US origin, 29,671 patents of German origin, 13,925 of French origin, 21,862 patents of Japanese origin, and 6,246 whose origin is the United Kingdom.
- 📌 For the time being, this decree does not affect the use of trademarks on products and services, so protection at the Trademark level would remain in force pending a possible modification of the Russian decree.
Madrid, March 11, 2022.- Industrial and Intellectual Property has entered the fray in the war provoked by Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Federation has issued a decree by which it eliminates compensation for the use of patents whose holder is from a foreign state of the so-called “hostile countries”. This means that Russian individuals and companies, or whoever the government considers, are authorized to exploit patents in Russia even if they do not own them without risk of being sanctioned. The decree states that “the amount of compensation amounts to 0 percent of the actual proceeds of the person who exercised the right to use an invention, utility model, or industrial design without the consent of the patent holder”.
Russia drew up the following list of countries considered hostile, among which Spain is included: United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Australia, Albania, Andorra, United Kingdom, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland.
This decision by Russia is considered an economic weapon in the war in which the West and Russia have engaged following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is one of the responses to the economic sanctions imposed by Western countries on the Russian military action.
This decree allows any Russian citizen or company to use the patents of holders from the aforementioned countries, which concerns companies that have invested a lot of money in R&D to create patents that help society evolve technologically. Thus, patents from Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc., could be used without sanctions in Russia, but they could not export or sell the product outside the Russian Federation. It is a pseudo-expropriation of industrial and intellectual property rights in that country.
According to official data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in Russia there is a total of 1,895 patents of Spanish origin between 2015 and 2020. In this same period, a total of 56,732 patents from holders in the United States; 29,671 patents from Germany; 13,925 patents from France; 21,862 patents from Japan; and 6,246 patents from the United Kingdom would be affected.
It should be noted that, for the moment, this decree only affects patents and not the use of trademarks on products and services in Russia. In other words, the validity and protection of trademarks remain in effect pending a possible modification of the Russian decree. World-class companies such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Zara, etc., made the decision to suspend their businesses and close establishments temporarily in Russia. For the time being, their brands would be protected, but if the decree were modified to affect the use of trademarks, they could be harmed.
For Pepe Isern, managing partner of ISERN Patents and Trademarks, “the choice was made not to touch the cases of patent expropriation and, instead, what has been done is that, without having to expropriate them, they can be used by third parties without the possibility of claiming damages or having these be the amount of 0% for that non-consensual use by the patent holder. Although this rule has been introduced within what is technically called compulsory licenses given at the request of local companies or on the initiative of the government, the intention to empty the patent rights in Russia whose origin is a ‘hostile state’ so that they can be used without compensation to their legitimate holder seems clear”. However, Pepe Isern continues, “many of the patents, Russian companies would hardly be able to implement themselves for the Russian market due to the costs and complexity of developing the technology patented by these companies and the know-how necessary to carry them out”.
Given the economic conflicts that may arise in this patent war, within the military conflict originated by Russia after invading Ukraine, the managing partner of Isern Patents and Trademarks, Pepe Isern, considers that “this technology patented in Russia is also patented in the countries where it is manufactured, with the patent having effect at the source. This will mean that supplier factories will not be participants in Russia’s authorization to use foreign patents and thus avoid breaking agreements with the true owners of these, who are their customers”.
Finally, Pepe Isern highlights that “there will indeed be some patents and technologies that will be affected, since, due to their production model and knowledge of the technique, they can be manufactured and sold in Russia by Russian companies”.
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Información de contacto:
Diego López López
Director Comunicación ISERN
699 98 30 98
comunicacion@isern.com