Russian Federation

[RU] Decree Establishes Intellectual Property Governmental Service

IRIS 2011-7:1/40

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

President Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation signed on 24 May 2011 a decree “On the Federal Service on Intellectual Property” (О Федеральной службе по интеллектуальной собственности). In order to streamline the structure of the Government the decree renames the existing Federal Service on Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks into the Federal Service on Intellectual Property, as well as adding to it the current powers of the Ministry of Justice as regards to legal protection of the state interests in the civil and economic transactions of the results of research and technological tests for military, special and double purposes at the expense of the federal budget. The agency will be directly under the Government of the Russian Federation, bypassing any ministry in the line of command. The new service is apparently a new step in the current governmental efforts to control intellectual property rights (see IRIS 2011-4/35).