On May 23, 2005, Mr. A.A. Pakhomov, Deputy Director of the Department for Foreign Economic Relations, Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade, participated in a round-table meeting on Legal Support to Combating Production and Distribution of Counterfeited Products in the Russian Federation, which was arranged by the Security Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly.
Deputies and employees of the Russian Federation State Duma Administration, representatives of executive (Russian Interior Ministry, Russian Federal Security Service, Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade, Russian Federal Customs Service, Russian Ministry of Justice) and judicial (Supreme Court of Russia, Supreme Arbitration Tribunal of Russia) authorities, prosecuting agencies, regions, Russian and foreign business communities, NGOs and rights holder associations (Russian Consumer Rights Society) as well as practicing law firms participated in the round-table meeting.
The round-table conference was inaugurated by Ms. Liubov K. Sliska, Senior Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. She pointed out in her speech that the subject under consideration is very topical and that there is a need in taking steps aimed at normalizing the situation with intellectual property as soon as possible in order, in particular, to enable to Russia to promptly accede to WTO and to relax tension during international negotiations.
Speeches of participants in the round-table conference on the following topics were heard at a meeting:
- on refining law-enforcement practice in connection with intellectual property disputes in Russia, including practice of prosecuting agencies. Participants in the meeting noted inadequate training of judges in settlement of both civil and criminal cases on breaching intellectual property rights. Representatives of judicial authorities covered work on drafting methods to resolve this problem and to summarize judicial practice;
- on further improvement of laws on copyright and allied rights, trademark circulation, information media protection. They discussed legal initiatives on making amendments and supplements to existing and on creating new special regulations on intellectual property;
- on experience of foreign nations in combating intellectual property offences. As part of this issue, they discussed a possibility of leveraging experience of France, U.S.A. and Japan in Russian practice;
- on problems facing right holders when they protect their intellectual property rights in court. Representatives of the business community expressed their willingness to cooperate with federal executive authorities in combating intellectual property breaches.
Based on the meeting results, participants in the round-table conference discussed draft recommendations of the Parliamentary Hearings on this subject held in November 2004.
In general, experts reached consensus on the need in holding subsequent round-table meetings on a permanent basis in order to strengthen cooperation and to coordinate actions of legislative, executive and judicial authorities as well as prosecuting agencies in combating intellectual property offences.
