On October 07, 2024, one of the key events in the field of intellectual property in 2024, took place in Moscow - the fourth Patent Congress, held by the Russian National Group of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).
«A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm became one of the organizers and sponsors of the congress, which annually gathers more than 300 professionals in the halls of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, including representatives of governmental bodies, industry, as well as practicing lawyers, patent experts and patent attorneys.
Senior Partner Aleksey Zalesov, as the honorary president of the Russian National Group, took part in the Plenary Session of the Congress, having spoken about the history of the international organization, the formation of the Russian group of AIPPI, as well as the tasks facing the organization.
Dr. Zalesov also moderated the IP Pharma round table, where speakers touched on topical issues of concern to the entire Russian pharmaceutical community.
Ms. Aurelia Cheban, Deputy Head of the Expertise Department of the Eurasian Patent Office, touched on the problematic aspects of the patent extension institute. Industry representatives, including companies such as Geropharm and Promomed, touched on the important issue of evergreen patents in the pharmaceutical industry, and also offered their vision of possible solutions; discussed the Bolar rule and the need to reflect it in the legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as issues of possible import substitution of medicines and its state support. At the same time, the participants did not ignore the problem of registration and judicial protection of trademarks related to dietary supplements and medicines.
Head of the Patent Department, Partner of «A.Zalesov & Partners», Maria Makhlina, traditionally held a round table on industrial designs, where representatives of the Russian and Eurasian patent offices, as well as of non-governmental organizations, designers and patent attorneys discussed the possibilities of registering and protecting designs in the digital environment.
The program of the round table turned out to be very rich: the participants touched upon not only the topic of how a designer could determine which objects of intellectual property subject to protection may arise when creating a complex object of the digital environment, but also how to correctly register such objects, what features of design registration in the digital environment are provided for the Russian and Eurasian systems, what measures of state support exist and what alternative systems of depositing rights could be considered by designers.
The designers, in turn, spoke about the problems and obstacles they encounter in practice when trying to protect their intellectual property.
As a result of the round table, the participants concluded that both patent offices and the state and relevant non-profit organizations should actively help designers in learning the basics of intellectual property and follow the path of simplifying registration procedures, while designers should be more responsible in the opportunities provided to protect their rights, which will allow them to secure their developments in the future, especially in such a new, but actively developing area of digital design.
The Patent Congress also included other sections where issues related to information technology, IP disputes, trademarks and IP transactions were discussed.
The Patent Congress is an extremely important event that annually brings together many IP professionals for the purpose of open dialogue and joint discussion of many aspects of intellectual property that concern the state, industry, and patent specialists, especially in the context of the constantly changing realities of the present time.