The crucial difference between public (including administrative) law and civil law lies in the method of regulating the relations of participants. The difference in methods of regulation makes it fundamentally impossible to have the same approach to resolving disputes. Managing Partner of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm Aleksey Zalesov argues that approaches, for example, in patent validity disputes and patent infringement disputes should be different. Therefore, it is extremely important to clearly understand what is an administrative norm in patent law, and what is a civil law norm.