Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in a Digital Economy: Is There a Need for Change?

Abstract

The paper looks at improving the judicial system in Russia facing the rapid technological change of modern society in which new relationships are largely associated with different areas of intellectual property. Today biotechnology, digital rights, computer programs and scientific research materials have become widely used in civil circulation and their intellectual property rights should be effectively protected. The paper discusses different issues of protecting intellectual rights provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, aimed at both suppressing and preventing their infringement, and assesses the statistical indicators of the courts. The practice of the Intellectual Property Rights Court and the Moscow City Court shows that specialization yields positive results. The selection of judges, their professional development including their distinctive competencies in addition to legal ones, also help to find effective ways of resolving intellectual property disputes. With the protection of intellectual property rights being of great concern not only in Russia, but also in most developed countries of the world, their experience has also been thoroughly analyzed. The paper suggests a possible way of improving the judicial system under the current circumstances. Certain changes in the judicial system and the creation of additional specialized intellectual property courts could help to ensure an affordable, legitimate and effective mechanism for resolving disputes related to the violation of intellectual property rights.