Skolkovo and HSE conduct an intellectual property study

A joint study of the Skolkovo Fund and Higher School of Economics on The Intellectual Property and Society Development: time for pragmatism was presented on June 5, 2013 during a press conference entitled An unconventional view of the intellectual property role in the innovative development of Russia. The study is focused on assessing the impact of the intellectual property (IP) and the parallel imports ban on the innovative development of Russia.

The Intellectual Property and Society Development: time for pragmatism is Russia’s first complex interdisciplinary study of the intellectual property’s impact on the social development and promotion of innovative activities. Work on the project began in the fall of 2012. The study involved experts from leading international universities - University College of London and New York University. Presentation of the study took place on May 16, 2013 at St. Petersburg International Legal Forum in the category on Protection of Competition and Intellectual Property: Unity and Struggle of Opposites.

Opening the event, the Director of Legal Policy and Social Development of the Skolkovo Fund Alexey Ivanov spoke about the Innovation Center’s part in the study.

Intellectual property issues are extremely important to the Skolkovo Fund and Russia’s innovation community. Existing intellectual property regime has a number of limitations, weaknesses and areas that require the legislator’s special attention. One of these issues is the prohibition on parallel imports. We hope that our achievements and proposals will form the basis of the national strategy - Alexey Ivanov says.

The director of the Center for Competition and Economic Regulation Studies of RANHiGS, Professor at Moscow State University Andrey Shastitko spoke about the problems arising at the intersection of the competition policy and intellectual property rights protection.

The competition is the driving force of any modern economy. Without it, we cannot ensure neither economic growth nor economic development. At the same time, it is impossible to achieve success without intellectual activity results. If it is possible to abuse the intellectual property rights, there is also the opportunity to abuse the rights to protect competition. Thus, the market participants actively use these rights under the pretext of competition protection - Andrey Shastitko said in his speech.

The Deputy Director of HSE subdepartment of Economic Analysis of Organizations and Markets, professor at Higher School of Economics Svetlana Avdasheva spoke about legislative methods to protect intellectual property rights.

Speaking of intellectual property rights, we are referring to a variety of circumstances. In addition, there is a variety of methods used to protect intellectual property. The problem is that from the legal point of view the protection of intellectual property means the protection of a variety of different participants’ rights. This is the protection of developer rights, and, for example, brand owner rights, - Svetlana Avdasheva said in her speech.

The Head of the Advertising and Unfair Competition Control Department of Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia Nikolay Kartashov presented the position of FAS on the parallel imports of foreign goods ban and competition policy issues in the intellectual property rights exchange.

Of course, we are excited about new studies on this topic. We stand for the liberalization of parallel imports, we intend to expand it and allow our economic entities to import goods into the country legally and freely. We also believe that the parallel import gives necessary support for innovation breakthroughs in all industries. And the study confirms it - Nikolay Kartashov says.