Source: https://iclg.com/practice-areas/fintech-laws-and-regulations/russia
Timestamp: 2018-07-21 05:17:11
Document Index: 674979681

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 1', 'art. 24', 'art. 12', 'art. 13', 'art. 137', 'art. 90', 'art. 67', 'art. 13', 'art. 327', 'art. 2', 'art. 1350', 'art. 1251']

Fintech 2018 | Laws and Regulations | Russia | ICLG
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Fintech 2018 | Russia
The representatives of Russian business, as well as Russian state authorities have recently been paying a lot of attention to the stable and rapid development of the fintech sector. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2018, the Central Bank of Russia (hereinafter – the Central Bank) published a document stating the main directions of fintech development in Russia for the years 2018–2020. According to the position of the Central Bank, the following sectors deserve primary attention:
distributed ledgers (as well as blockchain technology); and
Russia currently occupies one of the leading positions in the world with respect to the level of fintech involvement in people’s lives. The most popular services are related to payments and money transfers, while the volume of such operations increased by 47% in the year 2016. Such a quick growth is caused by the development of banking (Tinkoff Bank, Alfa Bank) and non-banking (QIWI wallet, Yandex Money) platforms. Moreover, services like Master Card PayPass, Visa PayWave, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have also received a very fast development in Russia – contactless technologies and NFC may be used nowadays for payment almost everywhere.
The Russian fintech market now has several innovation projects using the newest technologies in different areas. Some examples of the most successful Russian fintech startups and companies are, among others: VisionLabs; Telegram; Waves Platform; and Tinkoff Bank.
Furthermore, according to the statistics provided by the Central Bank, the level of fintech involvement trend has the highest rates in the following fields:
financing (P2P consumer crediting, P2P business crediting, crowdfunding); and
Due to the fact that fintech development accelerated just over the last few years, there are many aspects that are still not regulated by the Russia laws. That is the reason why we are not able to state that some types of fintech business are prohibited. Of course, there are several general limitations, related to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing. For example, according to the position of the Russian authorities, the transactions related to the cryptocurrency may be suspected to be used for covering operations aimed at money laundering and terrorism financing. For this particular reason, and due to the fact that the status of cryptocurrency is not still defined in any legal acts, the authorities warn citizens against their participation in such risky operations.
In the Russian context it would be more correct to say that many types of fintech still remain unregulated (cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, crowdfunding, P2P crediting, etc.). Furthermore, according to the draft laws elaborated jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, cryptocurrency or tokens will not be recognised as a lawful means of payment in Russia (will not be ranked pari passu with fiat currency – the rouble).
As mentioned above, the position of the authorities allows us to state that the use of cryptocurrency as a legal means of payment for ordinary goods will be prohibited (as far as we know, some countries have already allowed the use of cryptocurrency for common payments).
Russian legislation covering the issues related to the funding of companies, namely the Federal Law dated February 2, 1998 No. 14-FZ “On the Limited Liability Companies” and the Federal Law dated December 26, 1995 No. 208-FZ “On the Joint-Stock Companies”, prescribe both types of funding – debt and equity.
Equity funding may be performed in the following forms:
use of the company’s net income; and
issue and offering of shares.
The opportunities of debt funding are the following:
credits and loans received from banks and other financial institutions;
funds borrowed from other companies or private persons; and
Furthermore, according to the abovementioned laws the shareholders of the companies (LLC as well as JSC) are authorised to make gratuitous contributions aimed at financing the current activities of the company. Such contributions do not increase the amount of the company’s charter capital and the nominal value of the shares (but do increase the company’s net assets value).
Russian fintech businesses may enjoy incentive schemes prescribed by law aimed at the stimulation and facilitation of foreign and national investments. For example, special clusters and technological centres created in different regions of the country (one of the most known is Skolkovo) provide the startups and small/medium-sized businesses in the sphere of fintech with special tax exemptions or privileges. The government is also entitled to offer grants for the development of projects.
Furthermore, according to the Federal Law dated July 9, 1999 No. 160-FZ “Concerning foreign investments in Russian Federation”, some basic guarantees are provided to foreign investors, including, but not limited to:
legal protection of the investor’s activity in Russia;
right to freely dispose the income which is received in Russia; and
guarantee from a negative change of the legislation.
First of all, it should be noted that, according to the applicable legislation, there are two different forms of joint-stock companies in Russia: non-public and public ones. A non-public company may receive the status of a public company if it takes a decision to make an IPO and list its securities on a stock exchange.
An IPO in Russia may be structured in one of the following ways:
additional issue of securities and its use for IPO – primary placement;
public offer of shares that are already issued and owned by its shareholders – secondary placement; or
a combination of the two previous options.
The IPOs on the Russian equity market usually include both primary and secondary placements.
To access the exchange and be admitted for public offering a company should comply with the basic listing requirements:
compliance of the securities with the obligatory rules of the Russian legislation, namely with the requirements of the Federal Law dated April 22, 1996 No. 39-FZ “On Securities Market”, as well as the absence of factors that may impede the listing procedure;
disclosure of all necessary information about the issuer and the securities to the Central Bank of Russia (financial markets regulator);
acceptance of the securities for servicing by the settlement depositary; and
registration of the securities prospectus (a document containing all information about the issuer and listed securities) with the Central Bank.
The shares of foreign companies may be admitted for initial placement at a Russian exchange on the basis of a decision of the Central Bank of Russia. It should be further noted that according to the listing rules adopted by the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), there are several additional requirements with respect to foreign securities in order to be admitted for listing on MOEX:
the securities should have an international securities identification number (ISIN) and a Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI) code, assigned by one of the national numbering agencies which is a member of the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA);
the issuer of the securities: (a) is established in a country – member of OECD, member or observer of FATF, member of MONEYVAL, or the Single Economic Area; or (b) is established in a country with which the Central Bank of Russia has an effective agreement on cooperation; or (c) has already issued securities that are listed on an approved exchange (the list of such exchanges is prepared and updated by the Central Bank); and
the rights to the foreign securities are recorded by a Russian depository on a special account.
Once the abovementioned requirements are met by the issuer, the securities are included into the listings.
The case of Tinkoff Bank, who provides to its clients a full line of banking products and executing all operations online without any single branch, is a good example of fintech development in the Russian banking sector. The IPO of Tinkoff Bank took place in 2013 and gained around USD 1,087 billion.
In October 2017, a Russian companies group QIWI bought two fintech companies – RocketBank and Tochka Bank – that previously pertained to a Russian Holding Otkritie. These virtual banks, as well as Tinkoff Bank provide their clients with online banking services.
Furthermore, two companies, originating from Russia, made their exits via ICO. Since it is still impossible to make a lawful ICO in Russia, these offerings were performed in foreign jurisdictions.
Pavel Durov, the founder and creator of the popular messenger Telegram, published at the end of the previous year the information about his intentions to launch the project “Telegram Open Network” (a new distributed ledger based on blockchain technology) as well as new tokens – Gram. The first round of Telegram’s preliminary ICO made between the major shareholders of the company that took place in January 2018 and already gained USD 850 million. On March 30 the company announced the results of the second stage ICO – another USD 850 million were raised. Ninety-four investors participated in this investment stage.
Waves Platform – a open-source blockchain platform created by a Russian physicist and businessman Alexander Ivanov. This platform allows its users to launch their own cryptocurrency tokens on the basis of the smart-contacts technology. According to the estimations of www.coinmarketcap.com the market capitalisation of Waves as of March 28, 2018 is more than USD 427 million. The company launched the ICO in 2016 and gained more than BTC 30,000.
As it was previously stated in question 1.2 above, Russian legislation does not cover the majority of issues related to the sphere of fintech. The main document elaborated in this sphere is the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank which was, on March 20, 2018 submitted to the Parliament (State Duma). The key elements of this draft that fall undoubtedly under the general trend of the Russian authorities’ attitude towards these innovations, are the following:
cryptocurrency and tokens are qualified as a digital financial asset (hereinafter – the DFA). These DFAs may not be used as a lawful means of payment. The transactions aimed at the exchange of DFAs to other DFAs, roubles, foreign currency and other property may be performed by a non-qualified investor via a special DFA Exchange Operator (an entity acting according to the applicable laws as a broker, dealer, forex-dealer or market operator) only;
mining is recognised as an activity aimed at creation or receipt (as a reward for transactions validation) of cryptocurrency. This activity is qualified as business activity if the person (miner) exceeds within three months the limits of energy consumption, stipulated by the Government; and
smart-contract is identified as an agreement in electronic form, the execution of rights and obligations under which is performed by way of automatic electronic transactions in the distributed ledgers accomplished in the order and under circumstances stipulated in such contract.
Concerning the ICO, the idea of the authorities was to make the procedure similar to IPO. For this reason, at the first stage of issue the issuers of tokens should publish, on the Internet, their investing memorandum and a public offer (a document containing the terms of tokens issue, the issuer, depositary, price, date when the agreements with investors will be concluded, information about the procedure of electronic wallets opening, etc.). During the second stage of the issue the contracts, as well as smart-contracts, aimed at tokens transfer to the purchasers are concluded. Non-qualified investors are entitled to purchase tokens from one issue for a maximum sum identified by the Central Bank (this amount is currently planned to be limited to RUB 50,000 ≈ USD 860; hereinafter, the applied exchange rate of USD to RUB is relevant as of April 9, 2017).
Speaking about P2P financing and crowdfunding, a new project law concerning the crowdfunding market (also submitted to the Parliament) should be mentioned. This project is more oriented towards the regulation of crowdinvesting and scarcely covers the issues related to ordinary crowdfunding. For example, the project states in the art. 1 that it does not cover the issues of donations. Moreover, it is planned to limit the maximum amount of investments of a non-qualified investor or individual entrepreneur in one project, as well as the overall amount of investments that a project may raise by sums, indicated by the Central Bank (nowadays these amounts are expected to be RUB 1.4 million (≈ USD 23,300) and RUB 2 billion (≈ USD 33.3 million), respectively).
Apart from the P2P financing and crowdfunding, the laws regulate the activity of microfinance organisations dealing with microfinancing. According to the Federal Law dated July 2, 2010 No. 151-FZ “On microfinance activity and microfinance companies” such companies shall receive a special licence and be included into the register. The amount of the microloans that may be provided to entities and individuals is limited to RUB 3 million (≈ USD 50,000) and RUB 500,000 (≈ USD 8,325) respectively. Microfinance companies are not entitled to act as professional members of the securities market or traditional banks.
As was previously mentioned, Russian authorities are encouraged by the development of new technologies, but at the same time try to establish the rules of the game and regulate this sphere for the avoidance of law gaps and shadow schemes. The document stating the main directions of fintech development in Russia for the years 2018–2020 published by the Central Bank (its description was provided in question 1.1) represents another example of the authorities’ interest towards fintech.
Furthermore, in the year 2009 Skolkovo Innovation Center (so called “Russian Silicon Valley”) was created. The main purpose of this high technology business area is the development of science and technologies, including fintech. A special IT cluster is dedicated to the development of information security, information transfer and storage, robotisation, etc.
A foreign company which is providing fintech services and interested in attracting Russian clients should remember that some Russian laws have so-called imperative provisions that may not be altered or avoided by an agreement of the parties. Such provision may appear in a different field, such as personal data protection (see also question 4.2) or consumer rights protection (the consumer of different goods and services is basically qualified as a weaker party to a contract and has, consequently, several rights aimed at the protection of his interests). Furthermore, foreign fintech companies should comply with the mandatory requirements regarding the IPO and ICO (see questions 2.3 and 3.1 respectively).
Legal regulation in the field of the collection/use/transmission of personal data is based on the Constitution of the Russian Federation (in particular, cl. 1 art. 24 which prohibits the collection, storage, use and dissemination of information on a person’s private life without his/her consent) and international treaties such as the Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data dated January 1, 1981 No. 108 (Convention).
The primary national Law is the Federal Law dated July 27, 2006 No. 152-FZ “On personal data” (Personal Data Protection Law). There are some other federal laws defining cases and peculiarities of processing of personal data such as the Federal Law dated July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On information, information technologies and the protection of information”. The Labour Code of the Russian Federation contains a separate section devoted to protection of the personal data of the employees.
There are a number of subordinate acts:
the Government Decree dated September 15, 2008 No. 687 “On approval of the regulations about the features of the processing of personal data, carried out without the use of automation”;
the Government Decree dated November 1, 2012 No. 1119 “On approval of the requirements for the protection of personal data during their processing in personal data information systems”;
the Presidential Decree “On approval of the list of the confidential information”;
the Order of the Federal Service for supervision in the sphere of communication, information technologies and mass communications (Roskomnadzor) dated September 5, 2013 No. 996 “On approval of the requirements for the depersonalization of personal data”; and
the Order of Roskomnadzor dated March 15, 2013 No. 274 “On approval of the list of foreign states which are not parties to the Convention and which provide adequate protection of the rights of subjects of personal data” (Order No. 274); etc.
As for fintech business there are no special legal acts; so general principles of personal data protection are applicable.
Generally, the Russian legislation permits the cross-border transfer of personal data (s. art. 12 of the Personal Data Protection Law). However, at the same time, the list of countries where the personal data may be transferred is limited by two criteria. It should be either the countries which are the parties to the Convention or the countries which provide adequate protection of the rights of personal data subjects (which is, as of now, 13 countries, s. Order No. 274).
The cross-border transfer of personal data may be prohibited or restricted for the purposes of protecting the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, morality, health, rights and legitimate interests of citizens, to ensure the state’s defence and its security.
As to the transfer of personal data on the territory of foreign states which do not provide adequate protection, it may be carried out only in the following cases:
there is a written consent of the personal data subject to cross-border transfer of personal data;
it is stipulated in the international treaties of the Russian Federation;
it is provided by the federal laws and necessary for the purposes of protection of the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, ensuring national defence and safety of the state, and also safety of steady and safe functioning of the transport infrastructure, protection of interests of the personality, society and the state in the field of the transport infrastructure from acts of illegal intervention;
it is required for the performance of the agreement’s obligations to which the personal data subject is a party; and
it is required for the protection of life, health and other vital interests of the personal data subject, or other persons if it is impossible to obtain consent – in writing – of the personal data subject.
The requirements of the Personal Data Protection Law apply to the Russian legal entities, as well as to the branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities engaged in activities of personal data processing on the territory of the Russian Federation. But it is worth mentioning that according to latest amendments to the Personal Data Protection Law the operator is obliged to ensure the recording, systematisation, accumulation, storage, clarification (updating, changing) and extraction of personal data of Russian citizens using databases located only on the territory of the Russian Federation even if the personal data was received through the Internet.
Failure to comply with the data privacy laws results in the following sanctions:
Administrative liability: Administrative Code of the Russian Federation contains several administrative offences, for example: the processing of personal data in cases not prescribed by law; processing of personal data without written consent of the personal data subject to the processing of his personal data in cases where such consent must be obtained; and others (art. 13.11). The usual penalties for administrative offences in this sphere are fines (up to RUB 75,000 ≈ USD 1,250).
Criminal liability: Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains a number of criminal offences, for example: illegal collection or dissemination of information on the private life of a person constituting his or her personal or family secret without his or her consent; or dissemination of this information in a public speech, publicly displayed work or mass media (cl. 1 art. 137). The most common penalties for criminal offences in this sphere are: fines; compulsory community service; imprisonment for a maximum term of five years; and others.
Disciplinary and material liability: According to the Labour Code of the Russian Federation the employer (or officers) bears disciplinary and material liability for breach of data privacy laws while processing personal data of the employees (art. 90). The employer is entitled to terminate the employment agreement with an employee in the case where the latter illegally disclosed personal data of another employee.
Civil law liability: In any case, the person who breaches the data privacy law bears responsibility under civil legislation. Moreover, it is possible to compensate moral damage irrespective of compensation for property damage and losses.
The Russian legislation in the sphere of cyber security and cyber defence is continuously evolving. Among the main documents that may apply to fintech businesses it is worth mentioning the following:
The Federal Law dated July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”, stipulating the main methods of information protection, orders an obligation of the information holder to utilise constant control of the level of information security, prevent unauthorised access to information and prevent negative impact on the technical means of information processing (e.g. servers, hard discs, etc.).
Furthermore, the new Federal Law dated July 26, 2017 No. 187-FZ “On safety of critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation” adopted in the end of 2017 assumes the creation of a state system of detection, prevention and elimination of the consequences of attacks on information resources of the country.
The Criminal and Administrative Codes of the Russian Federation contain several offences in the field of computer information, e.g.: the unlawful access to the computer information protected by law; the use and distribution of fraudulent computer programs; the undue influence on the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation; and non-performance of duties by the news aggregator owner, etc. The most common penalties for such offences in this sphere are fines, compulsory community service or imprisonment.
Russia has been a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since 2003. Moreover, Russia is a party of several multilateral and bilateral agreements aimed at automatic information exchange, including the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. In September 2018, Russia will start the automatic tax information exchange according to the OECD system.
The main national Law in this sphere is the Federal Law dated August 7, 2001 No. 115-FZ “On Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing”, stipulating the obligation of financial institutions (including credit organisations, insurance companies, professional participants of the securities market, etc.) to work out the rules of internal supervision and compulsory control of the suspicious transactions (usually exceeding or equal to the amount of RUB 600,000 ≈ USD 10,000) taking into account the recommendations and directions of the Central Bank and the orders of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring.
Furthermore, the law stipulates the obligation of a company to provide banks and tax authorities with relevant information about its beneficial owners (according to the law, a shareholder owning directly or indirectly at least 25% of the company’s shares is qualified as its beneficial owner).
The Criminal and Administrative Codes of the Russian Federation contain a number of offences in this field, e.g. the laundering of money and other property acquired by illegal means, facilitating terrorist activities, the failure to comply with the requirements of the money laundering regulations, etc. The most common penalties for such offences in this sphere are fines, compulsory community service or limitation of freedom.
In addition to the regulatory regimes already specified above, fintech businesses shall definitely comply with the requirements concerning:
establishment and registration of a new Russian based company;
registration of a foreign company’s Russian branch office;
taxation of companies; and
import-substitution and localisation rules.
In relation to hiring employees, a written employment contract is required. The labour relations arise between an employee and an employer on the basis of such contract. Labour relations between the employer and the employee may appear before signing the labour agreement in case the employee was actually admitted to work at the request of the employer. In this case, the conclusion of the employment contract in writing is required no later than three working days from the date of the actual admission (art. 67 of the Labour Code of the Russian Federation, hereinafter – the Labour Code).
There are some restrictions related to the age of the employee. The conclusion of a contract with a person under the age of 16 is possible if there is no damage to health, study and moral development. In such cases, the consent of one of the parents (guardians), as well as the consent of the guardianship authorities is obligatory.
Any discrimination of the candidate by conclusion or termination of an employment contract in connection with the gender, race, colour, nationality, language, origin, status (property, family, social and official), age, place of residence of the candidate, and with respect to women for reasons related to pregnancy or the presence of children, is forbidden.
There are different grounds for dismissal of the employee: on the initiative of the employee; by agreement of the parties; due to staff reduction; and due to violation of labour duties, etc. Notification of the dismissal of the employee shall be made in writing (e.g., three days prior to dismissal in the case of the employer’s initiative).
Employers are not entitled to dismiss certain categories of employees: pregnant women; women with a child under the age of three or single women raising a child under the age of 14; a parent who is the sole breadwinner of a disabled child under the age of 18; and an employee in the period of his temporary incapacity for work, etc.
It should be noted that the Russian labour law is very employee-friendly. An employee may be dismissed only in the case of strong reasons, e.g. because of an absence from the workplace for more than four hours during the working day, or appearance of the worker in an intoxicated condition.
An employee is to be granted with a minimum salary (Statutory Minimum Wage Index) amounting RUB 9,489 ≈ USD 158 (RUB 11,163 ≈ USD 186 from May 1, 2018). However, each territorial subject has the right to establish its own rate, e.g. in Moscow it is equal to RUB 18,742 ≈ USD 312 (the same from May 1, 2018).
The key mandatory employment benefits of an employee are the following:
in case of official business trips: the preservation of the place of work (position) and average earnings, as well as reimbursement of expenses associated with such trips;
in case of moving to another locality due to the change of the workplace: reimbursement of all expenses for moving and settlement in a new place;
in case of combining work with education: additional study leave with the preservation of the average earnings;
in case of staff reduction or liquidation of the organisation: severance in the amount of one average monthly salary and a possibility to require two additional monthly salaries while looking for a new job;
maternity and paternity leave (up to three years);
paid annual leave (not less than 28 calendar days);
reduced working time for disabled persons (not more than 35 hours per week with full payment for work); and
allowance for temporary incapacity for work (illness).
According to cl. 1 art. 13 of the Federal Law dated July 25, 2002 No. 115-FZ “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation” the foreigners enjoy the right to freely dispose of their abilities to work, choose the kind of activity and profession on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Foreigners have the right to enter into labour relations if they have reached the age of 18. (cl. 3 art. 327.1 of the Labor Code.)
There are some requirements for the employers. The first thing which an employer shall control is the status of a foreigner. There are three statuses of foreigner which are in place in Russia:
Temporarily staying foreigners who work in Russia based on a visa and a work permit.
Temporarily residing foreigners who work in Russia based on a temporary residence permit.
Permanently residing foreigners who work in Russia based on a resident permit.
Most foreigners work in Russia on both a visa and work permit. A work permit should be executed only for foreigners from visa countries. Foreigners from visa-free countries (e.g. Moldova, Uzbekistan) shall obtain a patent. A work permit may be divided into two categories: for ordinary workers; and for highly-qualified specialists (HQs). A highly-qualified specialist is a foreign citizen who has experience, skills or achievements in a particular field of activity. Such workers have some privileges over others: a work permit is valid for three years (for ordinary workers this is usually for a year); they do not have to pass an exam in the Russian language; Russian history and the basics of Russian legislation; and they have the right to primary health care and specialised medical care on the basis of the medical insurance policy, etc. Highly qualified specialists participating in the “SKOLKOVO” project after entering Russia have the right to obtain a visa for up to 30 days, and in the case of successful employment, a work visa for up to three years.
According to the art. 2 of the Federal Law dated August 23, 1996 No. 127-FZ “On Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy” an innovation means a new or significantly improved product (product, service) or process introduced into the use, a new method of sales or a new method of organisation in business practice, workplace organisation or external relations.
According to the art. 1350 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter – the Civil Code) an invention means a technical solution in any field relating to a product or a method, including the use of a product or a method for a certain purpose.
On the basis of these definitions, we may assert that innovations and inventions are the results of intellectual activity which are currently governed by the Civil Code provisions.
The protection of intellectual rights (in particular, rights to the patent for the innovation or invention) is mainly exercised through the courts. There is a specialised Court for intellectual property rights in Russia (created in 2013) which considers disputes related to the protection of intellectual rights.
But in some cases, the legislator also provides the possibility of extrajudicial protection with a further possibility of appealing against the decision of the administrative body to the courts.
The following bodies administratively consider disputes related to the protection of intellectual property rights:
Federal service for intellectual property (Rospatent).
Federal Executive authorities (the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and others) empowered by the government of the Russian Federation to consider applications for the grant of a patent for inventions that contain data constituting a state secret.
Types of liabilities prescribed by law:
civil (recognition of the right, restoring the situation that existed before the violation of law, the suppression of acts infringing the intellectual property rights or creating a threat of its violation, compensation for moral harm, publication of the court’s decision on the violation) (art. 1251–1252 of the Civil Code);
administrative (imposition of a fine and forfeiture of counterfeit copies in case of import, sale and unlawful use of counterfeit works); and
criminal (imposition of a fine, community service, imprisonment in case of piracy, import, sale and unlawful use of counterfeit works, unlawful use of industrial property, if the mentioned actions leaded to a material loss).
The emergence, exercise and protection of the ownership of IP depends on the item of intellectual property. For example, for the emergence, exercise and protection of copyright no registration or any other formalities are required.
For other items of intellectual rights, creation and expression in an objective form is not enough: for the rights to arise and be realised and protected, it is necessary to perform a number of formalities provided by law.
For example, the exclusive right to an invention, even if it is actively used by the author himself, is not subject to protection, and the object of “industrial property” is not protected until the author (or a person authorised by him) receives a special document – a patent, following certain actions (filing an application, performance of the expert’s examination, payment of duties, state registration and receipt of the patent).
The Civil Code is the primary legislation for intellectual property rights, but there is a sufficient number of international treaties to which Russia has joined.
Generally, the enforcement and protection of IP rights in Russia is performed according to the documents of title issued by Rospatent. At the same time, some international treaties stipulate a special regime on IP rights protection. For example, Russia is a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883), Patent Cooperation Treaty (1970) and the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (1981). Pursuant to the respective provision of the mentioned treaties, the enforcement of the IP rights protected under these conventional regimes may be done in Russian without the receipt of local patents (the so-called convention priority rule is applied).
IP is usually exploited by means of:
assignment – a comprehensive transfer of the exclusive rights from the holder to the other person or entity;
licensing – granting of the intellectual property for temporary use; or
franchising – one party possessing a certain set of exclusive rights, having a well-established business reputation and certain experience in the commercial sphere of activity and transfers the set of rights (trademark, know-how, firm name, etc.) to the other party for use in its business activity.
These agreements must be in writing and they are subject to state registration with Rospatent.
According to the Civil Code, no gratuitous assignment of the exclusive right between commercial organisations is allowed. The payment of a remuneration under these agreements may be provided in the form of fixed one-time or periodic payments, interest payments on income (revenue) or in any other form.
The authors of this chapter are pleased to acknowledge Evgeny Zhilin for his individual contribution and expertise in this matter.
Evgeny Zhilin is the Partner in our Zurich office. His area of expertise focuses on international law (public and private), corporate law, contract law, commercial law, investment legislation, real estate and natural resources law, land law, civil law, litigation and arbitration, and legal due diligence.
Evgeny is the Advisor to the President of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation. EMEA Legal Experts recognises him as an expert in corporate law and M&A; Best Lawyers rating agency qualified him as an expert in trade law; IFLR 1000 international rating points him out as one of the leaders of the M&A practice. In March 2018, Evgeny was ranked as a leading specialist in the sphere of corporate & M&A transactions and international dispute resolution by Kommersant rating.