Total Upgrade: Intellectual Property Law Reform in Russia
Columbia Journal of East European Law, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-39, 2007
39 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2008
Date Written: 2007
Abstract
Russia has undertaken a large-scale intellectual prop-erty (IP) law reform. The reform abolishes most of the ex-isting IP legislation and instead puts all IP issues into the new Fourth Part of the Civil Code. The new legislation was signed into force at the end of 2006, but it was made effective starting from January 1, 2008. While the new leg-islation largely restates, consolidates, and refines the exist-ing legislation, it also introduces some concepts not known to Russian law before (such as "unified technology"). Im-portantly, the new Russian IP legislation addresses issues currently being a matter of international concern (such as phony right-management organizations granting licenses to pirate websites). This paper discusses the historical and international context of the new legislation and provides a detailed outline of the new Fourth Part of the Civil Code.
Keywords: Russia, IP law, Civil Code, reform
JEL Classification: K10, K19, K29, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation