On April 19, within the XXIII Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development a special roundtable on Competition and Intellectual Property under Sanctions was held.
The event, organized by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, was held in a mixed format.
The invited experts discussed measures to stimulate the economy under sanctions by weakening the protection of intellectual rights of foreign rights holders. Such measures include full-fledged legalization of parallel imports, intensification of compulsory licensing instruments, abandonment of "antimonopoly immunities", etc.
Intellectual property protection is one of the important tools for regulating the market economy in the modern era. In Russia in the post-Soviet period the focus in the field of intellectual property was directed to the full protection and satisfaction of the interests of the right holder, especially transnational corporations. The interests of national business development and balancing the interests of right holders and users of intellectual rights objects were on the periphery of the legislator's attention. This protective bias was expressed in such manifestations as: the ban on parallel imports, the actual non-use of the institute of compulsory licensing, the introduction of "antitrust immunities" for intellectual rights, etc.
In the context of the large-scale economic blockade imposed on Russia by Western countries, as well as voluntary sanctions by leading multinational corporations, this protective bias is no longer just a limitation of national economic development, but multiplies the effect of sanctions pressure.
At the same time, the discussion about the refusal to protect the intellectual rights of Western rights holders sometimes takes extreme forms. Calls can be heard for a complete refusal to protect intellectual rights in the country, which may become a gross violation of international agreements, and most importantly, entail poorly predictable consequences for the development of the Russian market after the acute phase of the economic blockade has passed. At the same time, the existing international treaties allow the application of measures to protect national interests and stimulate the processes of economic development by weakening the protection of intellectual rights of foreign right holders without complete rejection of intellectual property protection. Such measures include full-fledged legalization of parallel imports, intensification of compulsory licensing instruments, rejection of "antitrust immunities", etc.
In the context of ongoing cooperation with the BRICS countries, it is extremely important to build even extraordinary mechanisms to protect national interests under sanctions, taking into account the existing legal architecture in the field of intellectual property in the world. This session was intended to discuss ways to respond to sanctions pressure, taking into account the aforementioned mechanisms.
Moderator:
- Alexey Yurievich Ivanov, Director of the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre NIU HSE
Speakers:
- Karina Maratovna Taukenova, Deputy Head of FAS Russia;
- Timofey Vitalievich Nizhegorodtsev, Deputy Head of FAS Russia;;
- Mukhamed Anatolievich Hamukov, Deputy head of government relations at Ozon;
- Alexey Igorevich Dukhanin, Director of Government Relations at Wildberries;
- Anstoly Vyacheslavovich Semyonov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Committee on Intellectual Property;
- Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sivitsky, Professor, Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Faculty of Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics — St. Petersburg;
- Elena Anatolyevna Voinikanis, Leading research fellow at the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.