October 11, 2000

Memorandum

TO: CIPR MEMBERS & FRIENDS

FR: Peter B. Necarsulmer, Alexander Shelemekh and Paul Nathanson,
Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR)

RE: REPORT ON CIPR “MARKS OF COMPLIANCE” ROUNDTABLE IN MOSCOW

This memorandum provides an overview of the “Marks of Compliance” Roundtable organized on October 2, 2000 in Moscow by The Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) in cooperation with Rospatent (the Russian Federation Federal Patents and Trademark Agency) and the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The roundtable was held at Rospatent’s headquarters and moderated by CIPR Vice President Alexander Shelemekh.  Participants included Rospatent General Director Dr. Alexander Korchagin, and more than 60 Russian government officials, representatives from the Russian and international business communities, diplomatic representatives and journalists (list of attendees attached).

In fact, Rospatent announced last July that a "Marks of Compliance" provision will be introduced as part of the agency’s amendments to Russia’s trademark law (article 30) to be introduced in the Duma (Parliament) later this month.  The provision was introduced to address disputes that have arisen over brand names that were used by many different entities in the Soviet Union.  Under Soviet law, all trademarks were the property of the state.  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the privatization of these entities by the Russian Government, disputes arose over the right to use these Soviet-era trademarks.

The provision as first drafted last July called for Rospatent to issue a “mark of compliance” that would be controlled by the state and licensed to producers certifying that the product is of a certain standard.  When this provision was announced, trademark owners expressed fears that it was an effort by the Russian Government to renationalize many famous trademarks such as Stolichnaya and Prima, as well as scores of others.

However, in his remarks at the roundtable, Dr. Korchagin said that the language of the amendment was being revised and that it was never designed to re-nationalize Russian brands or to expropriate intellectual property, but rather to resolve ongoing trademark disputes between the government and private companies.  The proposed amendment, he stated, would prevent the disappearance of many Russian trademarks from the market.  He said that the provision was not meant to take “old” trademarks (those that appeared during the Soviet era) away their current owners, but would encourage those owners to reach an agreement with other businesses to "share" the brand or to consider former trademarks as "marks of compliance" for a product.  Otherwise, if the government was unable to clearly determine who had rightful ownership of the mark, the trademark would risk being cancelled altogether.

Dr. Korchagin issued his own article on this subject at the conference which more fully explains his positions and current views. 

Several participants spoke against the proposed amendment, including Lev Komarov, President of the Russian Association of Trademark Owners, Valeriy Guerman, president of the Association of Russian Patent Attorneys and Alexander Christophoroff, Former Chief of the Rospatent Legal Department and, currently Partner, McGuire Woods.  Among other arguments, they indicated that the adoption of this amendment would undermine investor confidence in the Russian Government and its intellectual property protection policies.

In his concluding remarks, CIPR Vice President Shelemekh stressed that, while there were opposing views on this issue, the interested parties chose to discuss the problem openly at the roundtable instead of attacking one another in the press.  He also expressed hope that the Government would follow one basic principle:  to not cause harm to the interests of the parties concerned when making such an important decision and to continue to maintain ongoing dialogue.

The Roundtable was part of CIPR’s ongoing efforts to promote discussion between the public and private sectors on intellectual property rights issues in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

Attached is a statement distributed by Dr. Korchagin at the roundtable, a list of roundtable participants, and various news articles on the event.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alexander Shelemekh or Paul Nathanson at if you have any questions or would like additional information.

In addition, please contact Alexander or Paul if you would like information on CIPR’s upcoming Baltic Region Seminar on Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement to be held in Riga, Latvia on October 25-26, 2000