Fear Stokes The Imagination

Published date10 August 2022
Subject MatterIntellectual Property, Trademark
Law FirmGorodissky & Partners
AuthorMr Vladimir Biriulin

While having national exhaustion of rights Russian government issued a list of goods allowed for parallel import. This sparked off a number of publications frowning upon one more step allegedly squeezing intellectual property rights in Russia.

The publications ignore the fact that parallel import is normal practice in a number of countries. The reason for partial allowance of parallel import was that a number companies left Russia and thus emptied the market of some products. So some measures to satisfy the demand were justified. Notwithstanding, some people misrepresented this as allowing counterfeit goods to be brought to the country which is absolutely unacceptable.

The list of allowed goods is long and it was prepared by the people from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. A closer look at the list shows that some items therein may be confusing. The compilers of the list admitted that, and from the beginning they stated that the list would be reviewed and amended from time to time depending on the demand and supply of a given product.

Despite its short existence the list has already been amended a couple of times. It may be assumed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade monitors the situation on the market but overlooks sometimes the changes that are taking place. This assumption is supported by trademarks owners themselves. As has been noted above parallel import is allowed only for those goods the supply of which is scarce.

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