Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #542

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Monit Khanna
Russia has gone ahead and passed a decree that would allow patented soft- ware, chip designs and other intellectual prop- erty from any unfriendly nations sanctioned by Vladimir Putin to be pirated.
Reported first
by Washington Post,
basically, Russian businesses can copy any intellec- tual property from companies hailing from the sanc- tioned list and make money without repercus- sions of the
law. Moreover, these companies won’t even be able to seek com- pensation upon breach or illegal use of their intel- lectual property.
The sanctioned list currently
includes
the US, Australia, Great Britain, Iceland, Canada, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Switzerland and EU member states.
The
move removes any kinds of pro- tections whatso- ever for patent holders registered in hostile nations, do business in them or hold their nationality. This move comes right after several glob-
al
businesses decid- ed to walk out of the nation after Russia decided to invade Ukraine.
As highlighted in a TASS report, such measures would “mitigate the impact on the
mar-
ket of supply chain brakes as well as shortages of goods and services that have arisen due to new sanctions of west- ern countries.”
The report also
highlights that Russia has also raised the possi- bility of lifting restrictions on certain trade- marks on prod- ucts where supply to Russia has been restricted. This means Russia could have its own ver- sion of McDonald’s with the same logo and branding
Josh Gerben, an intellectual prop- erty lawyer in Washington, in a conversation with Washington Post, such a decree could affect Western invest- ment in Russia way beyond any de-escalation of the war in Ukraine and companies that already saw risks in Russian business could have more rea- sons to be con- cerned.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
RussiaLegalizesPiracy, AllowsCompanies To Steal Patents FromUnfriendly Nations