Anastasia Zalesova, LL.M. IP, Russian Trademark Attorney, Head of the Consulting Group at «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent and Law Firm has explained that the initial adoption of the Federal Law «On Experimental Legal Regimes in the Sphere of Digital and Technological Innovations in the Russian Federation» was prompted by the rapid development of new legal relations in the field of innovative technologies, where traditional legal regulation mechanisms hindered their development or made their emergence and functioning virtually impossible.
At the same time, some legal regulation of such legal relations existed or could be used by analogy. Upon the entry into force of this law, experimental legal regimes (ELRs) have been created under certain conditions. These regimes are not subject to general regulation, but serve as exceptions and apply to specific objects. Such ELRs can be introduced for a period of up to three years (as for now).
A worth-attention example of the introducing such an ELR was the adoption of a Government Resolution regulating legal relations involving the agricultural unmanned aerial systems use. This ELR established the necessary conditions forhighly automated spraying of crop protection products using agricultural unmanned aerial systems. The experiment can be considered a success, as during its implementation, the Ministry of Economic Development was preparing a draft amendment to expand the ELR’s scope by seven regions and extend its validity until September 26, 2029.
The key innovation in Bill No. 1158700-8 is the abolition of the requirement for the so-called regulatory barrier to launching an ELR. Under the current version of the law, an ELR can only be introduced in cases where existing legal regulations contain prohibitions, restrictions, or other requirements that impede the implementation of an innovation. The amendments also allow for the establishment of an ELR in areas where there is no specific regulation at all, which is particularly relevant for artificial intelligence, industrial data exchange, autonomous technology, and other new technological areas.
Furthermore, the Bill increases the maximum validity period of the ELR from three to five years and introduces the possibility of terminating an ELR participant's status upon their substantiated request. For more details, see the article at EJ-Attorney on the web-site.