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Rightsholders warn that new initiative could
Moscow, Russia, 7 March 2006 — Representatives from all categories of intellectual property rightsholders, including the copyright community, producers of audio-visual products and phonograms, and owners of patents and trademarks gathered today to present their concerns at a roundtable organized by the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR). Rightholders are concerned because Part Four of the Civil Code, which has been prepared for submission into the RF State Duma, was not the subject of public discussion. This draft would annul all special intellectual property rights laws, including the Law on Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, the Law on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origins of Goods. The law was prepared by a group of lawyers, without preliminary consultations or agreement from those who will be required to follow the law — rightsholders. On 9 March, this new legislation will be discussed at the Government Commission on Fighting IPR Violations. Participants of today's roundtable adopted a declaration to Chairman of the Government Commission, Dmitriy Medvedev, asking for a broad discussion of problems related to this possible change in Russia's intellectual property legislation. "If the draft Part Four of the Civil Code is submitted into the Duma, the negotiators will take time to study the law to determine if it is in accordance with international standards and TRIPS, which is a requirement for entering the WTO. Considering the document's size, which is over 200 pages, negotiations will be significantly delayed," warns Olga Barannikova, Representative in Russia of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR). Among over forty representatives of the rightsholder community, not one person supported the project in its current form. Although the rightsholder community only received the text less than two weeks ago, concrete criticisms were stated against practically every section of the draft. Speakers noted a lack of clarity in many of the norms and inconsistence with international treaties and agreements. However, the chief objection, which was supported by all roundtable participants, was that there should not be any significant changes in IPR legislation at this time. Such radical, significant changes in intellectual property rights legislation will not only weaken protection for intellectual property rights, but, at this time, when the courts have just finally developed experience in this area, may lead to a significant increase in the number of questionable court decisions and will make the fight against counterfeiters more difficult. "At this time, when a dialog between the Government and community has been established in Russia and when declarations have been made on the need for broad discussion of vitally important issues among all involved parties, it is perplexing that the draft's authors ignored the opinions of the business community," said Olga Barannikova, Representative in Russia of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR). On 2 June 2005, the Presidential Administration passed an Order to establish a working group to draft Part Four of the Civil Code. At the end of 2005, the working group completed its draft. Part Four of the RF Civil Code includes Part VII "Intellectual Property Rights and Identification Marks," which consists of eight chapters: "General Provisions," "Copyrights," "Neighboring Rights to Copyrights," "Patent Rights," "Rights to Selection Achievements," "Rights to Topologies of Integrated Circuits," Rights to Trade Secrets," and "Identification Marks of Legal Entities, Products, Work, Services, Companies and Informational Resources." Part Four of the RF Civil Code states that all special intellectual property rights laws will be annulled, including the Law on Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, the Law on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origins of Goods.
Kind regards, Dominique Winther
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