Elena Berger, Senior Associate of the IP practice spoke before the participants of the European Legal Students Association (ELSA) summer school, consolidating law school students from all European countries.

ELSA regularly organizes summer and winter schools in European universities on legal topics for law school students, where the most vital industry issues are discussed. Summer school 2017 was held in St. Petersburg. The seminars were dedicated to intellectual property, and practicing lawyers told foreign students about the most vital trends in intellectual property.

Elena’s topic was devoted to parallel import and was called “Parallel import: protection of consumer of rightholders?” In her presentation, Elena analyzed the global experience, as well as the position of the Russian legislative bodies in respect to this issue.

Note that in Russia this topic has been under active discussion since 2011, when the Russian Federal Antitrust Service (‘FAS’) proposed to allow parallel import in Russia, providing the argument that this would help develop competition in the country. At present, parallel import is prohibited in Russia; however, the proposal of the FAS gave rise to much discussion. Elena’s presentation was no exception, and in the course of discussion the participants’ opinions were also split.