Patent Damages in Russia

Elena Beier and Anne Wright Fiero have published a paper titled The U.S. and Russian Patent Systems: Recent Amendments and Global Implications for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 504 (2015).  Here is a link to the paper, and here is the abstract:

Recent legislative and geo-political activity might suggest little common ground between the United States and Russia. The respective intellectual property laws of these two countries, however, share many common goals. In fact, as reflected in the Report of the Innovation Working Group of the Russia-US Bilateral Presidential Commission (initiated by the Ministry of Economic development of the Russian Federation and U.S. Department of State), the two countries are trending towards cooperative intellectual property legislation. This article compares U.S. and Russian patent laws, with a particular emphasis on recent amendments in the areas of inventorship, prior art, and technology transfers. It further explores how these legislative amendments can shape and encourage global competition and innovation.

One of the last parts of the paper discusses the new Russian law on damages, which Nadia Wood and I blogged about last year here.  The authors write:

. . . since January 2015, Russian law allows for compensation in connection with patent infringement as follows:

10,000 - 5 ,000,000 Rubs, upon court's decision;

or double the commercial value of the invention, utility model or industrial design. This value is usually comprised of the price which is usually established for using this patent or double the price of products where such patent is used.

These values are based on the prices which are charged in similar conditions for lawful use of the invention, utility model or industrial design or double value of goods in which such invention utility model or industrial design is used.

This change will strengthen liability for patent infringements and will allow right holders as an alternative to set a fixed compensation and avoid complicated calculations on damages and lost profit.