The new Russian Law of Geographical Indications: a critical assessment

Abstract

This article critically analyses the recent reform of the Russian Geographical Indications (GI) Law which came into force on 27 July 2020. This has deeply transformed the sui generis system of the country, in an effort to introduce a regime inspired by the EU experience as well as by the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement. On the basis of the best available legal and economic sources, the article investigates this legal framework from two perspectives. First, the new provisions of this law are critically assessed. Next, the article discusses whether and to what extent this reform can achieve the ambitious goals that it has set itself. It will be concluded that, first, although this is an interesting attempt to introduce an improved GI system that will probably fix some of the previous dysfunctions, this is still incomplete and distant from the international best practices. Secondly, the analysis will lead to the conclusion that the policy goals of the reform will be difficult to achieve at least in the short term. This article represents the first scholarly analysis of the new Russian sui generis GI regime, thus filling a gap in international academic literature.