For about four years, now, new intellectual property rights legislation in the Russian Federation is in force. It includes a summarized and systematized codification of all objects of intellectual property as part of the Russian Civil Code (unofficial English translation is available at the Russian Patent and Trademark Office, Rospatent).

The most recent amendment of the Russian procedural law accompanies the mentioned modernization of the Russian intellectual property rights legislation. Now, the legal basis for the establishment of a so-called court for intellectual property rights (IPR Court) and the corresponding procedures have been created with the changes in Russian legislation with enactments of 6th and 8th of December 2011 (No. 4-FKZ and No. 422-FZ). This IPR Court will be a specialized court within the jurisdiction of Russian “Arbitrazh” courts, the jurisdiction which will, in the future, cover all proceedings concerning disputes in intellectual property rights. With the establishment of this separate specialized court, which is to start in February 2013, it is primarily intended to promote judicial expertise in the field of intellectual property rights and to ensure a consistent development of IPR case-law in Russia. In the course of the aforementioned modernization of the Russian IPR legislation it is intended to facilitate intellectual property litigation since Russian courts have to deal increasingly with issues of intellectual property rights.

In the future, this new IPR Court will be responsible for proceedings involving Rospatent as well as for litigation proceedings. Therefore, as the Court of First Instance the IPR Court will adjudicate cases involving decisions of Rospatent on prosecution of patents, revocation proceedings and trademark registrations. To date, ​​first instance appeals against such decisions are filed with the Moscow City “Arbitrazh” Court at the seat of Rospatent. As the Court of Cassation the IPR Court will, in the future, also be active in adjudicating cases involving its own first instance decisions as well as decisions of “Arbitrazh” courts of first and second instances in infringement proceedings. So far, the latter proceedings are adjudicated by the Federal “Arbitrazh” District Courts as the Courts of Cassation. The decisions of the IPR Court as the Court of Cassation in intellectual property rights disputes are in turn to be reviewed in the procedure of supervision at the Supreme Commercial (Arbitrazh) Court of the Russian Federation as last instance. Therefore, this new specialized IPR Court is to be placed right below the Supreme Commercial Court.