GENERAL LICENSE NO. 31: The U.S. Government authorizes Certain Transactions Related to Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights in Russia

On 5 May 2022 the Department of Treasury of the U.S.A. published General License No. 31 “Authorizing Certain Transactions Related to Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights”, which refers to the previously adopted sanctions under Directive 4 under Executive Order 14024 “Prohibitions Related to Transactions Involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation,” 28 Feb. 2022

In particular, License No. 31 makes an exception for transactions made in connection with patents, trademarks, copyright and other form of intellectual property. As for now, the following transactions are authorized:

1. 1. The filing and prosecution of any application to obtain a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection;
2. 2. The receipt of a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection;
3. 3. The renewal or maintenance of a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection; and
4. 4. The filing and prosecution of any opposition or infringement proceeding with respect to a patent, trademark, copyright, or other form of intellectual property protection, or the entrance of a defense to any such proceeding.

The reconsideration of the previously imposed sanctions by the U.S. Government is beneficial to all of the U.S. owners of Russian intellectual property assets facilitating payments to enable the U.S. applicants and owners to file, prosecute, register and maintain their patent, trademark and design rights in Russia.
The full version of the License is available at: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/russia_gl31.pdf

In general, the Russian and Eurasian patent offices operate as usual providing patent and trademark registration services to all of the foreign applicants — irrespective of their origin and presence in the Russian market.

As always, we are keeping a close eye on all of the ongoing law updates and amendments and would be happy to provide any legal assistance and advice on the intellectual property matters to our clients from all over the world.