The Russian Federation (Russia) is about forty-five times the size of Japan and has a population of about 140 million people (2009). Russia maintained a high average real GDP growth rate of 6.9% for ten years up through 2008. Russia had the world’s eleventh-largest GDP in 2008 and holds an important industrial position as a member of BRICs.

Russia’s intellectual property system was established in 1992, the year after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, with enactments of a patent law, utility model law, and design law. In 1993, laws for trademarks and copyright were enacted. These intellectual property laws of 1992 and 1993 underwent revisions in 2002 and 2003, and in preparation for entry to the WTO, Russia consolidated these in its revision of its Civil Code under Part IV.

Russia is a signatory to the Paris Convention (July 1, 1965), Eurasian Patent Convention (March 29, 1978), Madrid Agreement (January 7, 1976), Madrid Protocol (June 10, 1997), Nice Agreement (December 30, 1987), Budapest Treaty (April 22, 1981), and other intellectual property agreements (dates of entry are given in parentheses). It is not a member of the WTO.

Table 1 indicates aspects common to each form of intellectual property protection. There are many items similar to Japan’s, but differences between the two countries’ systems do exist, such as the fact that whereas Japan’s utility model system requires a degree of inventive step in addition to novelty, Russia’s utility model rights may be given without fulfilling any requirement of inventive step.

Table 1. Summary of Each Jurisdiction

Note: The applicant may correct errors in the Russian translation submitted subsequently for an application based on the language used in the specification as first submitted to the Russian Patent Office.

Table 2. Transition of Number of Applications (2006-2008)

（Source: Resources distributed at Patent Seminar 2010 hosted by the Kinki Branch of the Japan Patent Attorneys Association, March 12, 2010）

Here follows a summary of the application process, from application to acquisition of a patent.

Products (for example, appliances, materials, microorganism strains, and animal or plant cell cultures) and methods (operations that use particular methods to affect particular objects) that are related to technical means for solving problems in any field may receive protection as inventions.
However, discoveries; scientific theories; mathematical methods; game rules; intellectual or business activities; computer software; ideas connected to presentation of information; animal and plant varieties; connection diagrams of integrated circuit chips; proposals contrary to the public good, humane principles, or morals; et cetera are not protected.

New ideas for a device for manufacturing products or a part of such a device may be protected. A utility model application must include a drawing.

Acquiring a patent in Russia takes one of five routes, namely, 1) direct application to the Russian Patent Office, 2) the Paris Convention route, 3) the PCT route, 4) the Eurasian patent application, and 5) application under the Eurasian Patent Convention.

In 1996, the Eurasian Patent Office was established in Moscow to receive patent applications from nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States. This allowed applications to Russia to also pass through the Eurasian Patent Office.
Nine countries (Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) are members of the Eurasian Patent Convention. The Eurasian Patent Office is generally not as strict as the Russian Patent Office is, and it is expected that the number of applications entering Russia by this route will increase. However, the Eurasian Patent Treaty does not include a provision for utility models.

Regardless of the nationality or citizenship of the inventor(s) and/or applicant(s), all applicants must first apply at the Russia Patent Office if the invention was made in Russia.

If one applies before receiving any decision of refusal or before the patent is registered, a divisional application is possible. However, Russia’s patent system does not have a system corresponding to the continuing patent (CP) or continuation-in-part (CIP) systems of the United States.

The following documents are included in a patent application: 1) application form; 2) specification, claims, summary, and required drawings; 3) written oath of the inventor(s); 4) power of attorney; 5) assignment (when the applicant[s] is/are one and the same with the inventor[s]; in principle, an authentication document will not accepted); and 6) if the applicant claims priority, a priority certificate (to be submitted within 16 months of the priority date and if the application goes through the Eurasian Patent Convention, to be submitted within 3 months of application). Apart from the application form, the applicant may first submit the documents in a language other than Russian and then make a subsequent completion with Russian translations of these documents up to 2 months later.

After 2 months have passed since the application date, preliminary examination of the format, content of the application’s proposed solution to a problem, application requirements, and novelty. Until the preliminary examination begins, in principle, the applicant may make voluntary amendments to what is written in the specification.

After 18 months since the application date have passed, the content of the application will be published in the Russian patent publication, regardless of the state of the examination. With the publication, the applicant gains interim protection rights (which may be exerted after issuance of the patent). In the case of an Eurasian patent application, the patent is published along with the search report.

Russia has an application examination system as Japan does. The deadline for requesting examination lasts is 3 years from the application date (if the applicant pays an extension fee, a 2-month extension is possible). If there is no request for examination, the application will be deemed withdrawn.
In the case of an Eurasia patent application, request for substantive examination is required within 6 months of the publication of the search report (if the applicant pays an extension fee, a 2-month extension is possible).

As in Japan, there is a substantive examination regarding the invention’s novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability. The applicant must normally respond within 2 months of receiving any invitation to correct the application. Extension of this 2-month period is possible if the applicant makes a request for such. There is no limit to the number of requests for extension that the applicant may make, and the deadline for response may be extended up to 10 months. There is also a system for appeals regarding decisions of refusal.

Changes to the other forms of application are possible for changing a patent application to a utility model (before publication of the application or before issuance of decision to grant a patent) or vice versa (up to the decision to grant a utility model right), or for cases when within six months after an Eurasian patent application is rejected, the applicant shifts the application to national applications within one or more signatory countries including Russia.

After receipt of the notification of decision to grant a patent, when the applicant pays the prescribed registration fees, the patent is announced in the Russian patent publication and a certificate of patent is issued.

Homepage of the Russian Federation Patent Office:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru