Separate Issues of Implementation of Parallel Imports Regime and Related Problems of Intellectual Property Protection in Russia under Sanctions

Abstract

It is already possible to conduct a comprehensive assessment of parallel imports introduction into the Russian legislation, which aims at providing Russian consumers with goods that are no longer available on the national market due to the sanctions against the Russian Federation adopted in 2022 and a number of companies suspending their activities in the Russian Federation. Exhaustion of intellectual property rights has been known in the world for quite a long time as a tool aimed at ensuring a balance of interests of copyright holders, consumers and importers, as well as a tool for ensuring international competition. In a particular state, one or another regime of exhaustion is applied taking into account the economic, political foundations of the functioning of the state economy, legal and evolutionary prerequisites. In this context, the paper presents a number of conclusions and proposals aimed at optimization of the parallel imports regime in Russia. The author considers some aspects of the customs, and substantiates the expediency of direct consolidation of international exhaustion of rights in the Russian legislation and possible development trajectories of the «list» approach to parallel imports. General approaches to the protection of intellectual property under sanctions are formulated, as well as proposals for solving problems related to the use of copyright objects belonging to copyright holders who have suspended their activities in Russia following sanctions regimes. The formulated conclusions and proposals could be summarized and taken into account in the Strategy for the Development of Intellectual Property in Russia — a strategic document that is extremely necessary in order to systematize and optimize measures for the development of approaches to the protection and promotion of the creation of intellectual property in Russia.