Patent registration in Russia. Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Russia is a great power and is considered a potential superpower. It is ranked 52nd on the Human Development Index, with a universal healthcare system, and free university education. Russia’s economy is the world’s eleventh-largest by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest by PPP. It is a recognized nuclear-weapons state, possessing the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Russia.
Patent in Russia
According to Russian law, a patent in Russia is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
To be patentable in Russia, an invention must satisfy the new, nonobvious, inventive, and industrially applicable requirements.
Russia has a 6 months novelty grace period. This means that if the patent application is filed within 6 months from the public exposure date, the patent application will still be considered valid.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the unpatentable subjects in Russia are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Russia
The necessary documents for patent registration in Russia include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The official language for proceedings before the Russian Patent Office is Russian.
The patent application can be filed in other foreign languages, however, they must submit a Russian translation of the required documents within 3 months from the filing date.
The procedure for patent registration in Russia
To obtain a patent in Russia, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Russia.
The patent application submitted will undergo both a formal and substantive examination to check if it complies with the requirement of the law and whether it is patentable or not.
Normally, the substantive examination is started automatically after the formal examination, however, it should be noted that for some cases, a request for such examination must be sent to the IP Office within 3 months from the filing date.
Even if the patent examinations come back with positive results, the patent will still not be considered valid until the applicant pays the examination fees, grant fee, and a couple of the yearly annual maintenance fees depending on the processing time of the application.
Subsequent annual maintenance fees are paid in advance before the anniversary of the filing date. Russia provides a grace period of 6 months in which the patentee can pay the maintenance fees along with a 50% surcharge.
You can see a list of Russian IP firms here.