CLS provides comprehensive legal support with issues related to registration of intellectual property rights, protection of copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and know-how. CLS associates focus on resolving issues related to parallel import and combatting counterfeit goods, as well as launching existing brands on the Russian market. They also provide support in intellectual property disputes at the pretrial stage and before the Court and Chamber for Patent Disputes.

Our associates also have extensive expertise in legal regulation of information and digital technologies, including issues related to registration and protection of new technologies, launch and support of digital ecosystems in various areas. They assist with issues related to inclusion of software in the Register of Russian domestic software, due diligence of rights to software and other technologies, support of transactions on acquisition of intangible assets.

In addition, the Intellectual Property practice has a worldwide contact database of patent attorneys and provides a one-stop service of international registration of trademarks: there is no need for the client to contact a patent attorney in each specific country.

The practice has been repeatedly recognized in legal ratings, such as The Legal 500, Chambers Europe, WTR 1000, Pravo-300 and the Kommersant rating.

Services related to Information Technologies:

• Advising on issues related to IT development, use and implementation;
• Due diligence of software rights;
• Developing IT-related agreements, including license, user, web services use and SaaS agreements;
• Developing non-standard agreements and legal documents to meet terms and conditions of a specific IT project;
• Advising on actions of information intermediaries, representing their interests in relations with rightholders, users and other persons;
• Support for registration of computer software and databases with Rospatent;
• Support for including software in the Register of Russian domestic software.
• Advising on domain disputes;
• Representing clients’ interests before courts in disputes over copyright, recovery of compensation for unlawful use of computer software, cancellation of domain name registration.

Services related to trademarks:

•  Searching for and verifying trademarks;
• Registering trademarks in Russia and foreign countries;
• Entering amendments into the Public Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Russian Federation;
• Extending trademark terms and other actions on maintaining trademark legal protection;
• Administering cases at the Chamber for Patent Disputes, including filing objections against Rospatent’s decisions on provision/non-provision of trademark protection, on acknowledging trademark protection invalid or acknowledging a trademark as a well-known mark;
• Representing clients’ interests before commercial arbitration courts in disputes over infringement of trademark rights, recovery of compensation for unlawful use of trademarks, early termination of trademark legal protection;
• Representing clients’ interests before the Federal Antitrust Service in disputes over unfair competition related to the trademark use.

Intellectual property rights: 

• Legal audit of intangible assets, development of the best strategy for distributing intangible assets;
• Developing and legal audit of IP rights agreements: license agreements, agreements for alienation of exclusive rights, concession/franchise agreements, agreements for pledge of exclusive rights, agreements for creation of intellectual property, including under author commissioning agreements, in the course of R&D, etc.;
• Advising on registration of an employer’s rights to work done for hire;
• Developing models for the use and management of intellectual property, structuring transactions on acquisition of intellectual property.

Services related to combatting counterfeit goods and parallel import:

• Monitoring, detecting, documenting and restraining infringements of exclusive rights by third parties, including detecting parallel import and counterfeit goods with assistance from the authorities, including customs, police and Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor);
• Registering trademarks in the Russian Customs Intellectual Property Register, support in the course of administrative procedures initiated by customs authorities;
• Claim settlement and court work on administrative, criminal and civil liability for violators.

Services related to court protection:

• Advising and representing clients’ interests before commercial arbitration courts, courts of general jurisdiction and Intellectual Property Court of all instances in disputes over:

• Ceasing infringement of intellectual property rights;
• Recovery of compensation for unlawful use of intellectual property;
• Contesting decisions of the Chamber for Patent Disputes;
• Early termination of trademark legal protection;
• Contesting authorship;
• Protection of personal non-property rights of authors;
• Domain names;
• Debt recovery and termination of agreements for disposing over intellectual property, etc.