The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will consider a case regarding the recovery of royalties for the use of a patent for invention invalidated from the filing date. Irina Ozolina, Senior Partner at «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm, answered questions of «Kommersant» Publishing House journalists regarding this case.
The advocate explained the reasons why Rospatent typically revokes patents for invention and how often this occurs. Irina noted that in this specific case, the reference to the right of prior use has no legal significance — it is merely used as the licensee's argument that it believes it has the right to stop paying royalties before the expiration of the agreement.
Irina noted that the positions of both parties are understandable and valid. Moreover, the courts at three levels of jurisdiction in this dispute interpreted Resolution No. 10 of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 23, 2019, «On the Application of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation» as applying only to undisputed royalties. However, this is rather a broad interpretation, since paragraph 141 does not directly indicate that it applies only to royalties recognized by the licensee. The Supreme Court will now provide clarification on whether this provision should be interpreted broadly.
For the full text of the article (in Russian) please follow the link.