The discussion of the draft federal law “On Amendments to Part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” took place within the framework of the working group “Transformation of the Business Environment” under the Government of the Russian Federation, of which M.D. is a member. Levant. The document was prepared in order to implement the action plan of the road map “Transformation of the business climate” “Intellectual property”, approved by order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated August 3, 2020.
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The bill proposes to amend Articles 1477, 1478 and 1492 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and provide citizens of the Russian Federation and foreign citizens carrying out business activities without state registration as individual entrepreneurs with the right to register trademarks, and thereby equalize their rights with individual entrepreneurs and foreign applicants, which will create the possibility of registering trademarks, including self-employed citizens.
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In the event of the death of a citizen – the copyright holder, the exclusive right to a trademark will be inherited. Moreover, if there are several heirs, then only one can become the copyright holder.
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At the moment, Article 1478 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that only a legal entity or individual entrepreneur can be the owner of the exclusive right to a trademark.
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Matvey warmly supported the initiative: “We need to unify our legislation with international financial centers and lift the ban on citizens and foreigners without individual entrepreneur status to register trademarks. The successful experience of Austria, Germany, Canada, China, the UK and the USA has shown the urgent need for this.”
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Moreover, the bill provides for the disposal of rights to the results of intellectual activity through information systems (including distributed registries) and the establishment of the powers of federal executive authorities participating in such systems, which is extremely important in the current conditions of a pandemic and remote work.