On July 7, 2025 the President of the Russian Federation signed Federal Law dd. July 07, 2025 N 214-ФЗ "On Amendment of Part Four of the Russian Federation Civil Code" (the Law), intended to bring the legislation in line with Rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dd. December 12, 2016 N 28-П and July 24, 2020 N 40-П. The Law will come into force on January 4, 2026.
The amendments have been made both to the general provisions of Part Four of the Russian Federation Civil Code (the Code) on compensation and certain provisions concerning copyright and related rights and means of identification.
A part of amendments made has officially formalized in the legislation the approaches taken by courts in recent years with regard to determining the size of a compensation for unlawful use of intellectual properties.
Principal amendments:
- Now the Code gives a more specific definition of the infringement of the exclusive right: “Unlawful use of one result of intellectual activity or mean of individualization in any one way» (i. 1.1 of Art. 1250 of the RF CC).
- A new article regulating the principles of calculation of compensations has been added to the Code (the general principles of calculation of compensation payments are established by Article 1252.1 of the RF CC, substituted for i. 3 of Art. 1252 of the RF CC).
- New provisions concerning court’s discretion in determining compensation size: In case the method of calculation of a compensation proposed by the claimant turns out to be unacceptable due to the circumstances surrounding the breach, courts may modify the method of calculation and determine a compensation in a fixed amount (i. 4 of Art. 1252.1 of the RF CC).
- Compensation sizes have been amended for materials protected by copyright and related rights, patent rights, and trademarks: the maximum amount of a compensation has been increased from 5 to 10 million rubles. The minimal amount of compensation has been increased for patent rights only to 50 thousand rubles (ii. 1 of Art. 1406.1 of the RF CC). For appellations of origin of goods and geographical indications compensation in a double amount of the cost of counterfeit products has been abolished. Now trademark owners may only look to a fixed compensation in an amount of 10 thousand to 5 million rubles (i. 2 of Art. 1537 of the RF CC).
- The law captures the principle of determining of the size of compensation in case of multiple infringements: In case of use of several intellectual property items in counterfeit products, the bottom-line compensation size is determined based on the calculation method applicable to one item, irrespective of the number of infringed rights (i. 5 of Art. 1252.1 of the RF CC).
- The procedure for distribution of compensations among co-owners: If a compensation is awarded to one of the co-holders of a right, it is obligated to distribute the received amount on a pro rata basis among other co-owners (i. 6 of Art. 1252.1 of the RF CC).
- The law takes into account provisions of the Constitutional Court’s rulings related to decreasing of the size of a compensation for a first-time no-fault infringement: Where there is no fault, the size of awarded compensation payable by an entrepreneur can be reduced but cannot be less than one fold cost of the counterfeit product or the cost of right, or it can be determined as equal to an amount within the range between 10 thousand and 500 thousand rubles (i. 7 Art. 1252.1 of the RF CC).
- A provision on regulation of the joint liability has been introduced: Several persons who have independently committed an infringement using one and the same counterfeit materials, incur joint liability in case recovery of a compensation from each of them would result in undue right holder’s enrichment (i. 8 of Art. 1252.1 of the RF CC).
- Participation of a licensee in a claim for compensation has been defined more precisely: Right holder’s and exclusive licensee’s claims against a third party for a compensation for one and the same infringement are considered as joint claims (i. 2 of Art. 1254 of the RF CC).
- Infringement of non-property and exclusive rights has been differentiated: If the source contains no information about the author, the failure to indicate the author in a free use of the work constitutes an infringement of non-property rights rather than the exclusive right (i. 3 Art. 1265 of the RF CC).
- The limits on a compensation for acts referred to in i. 3 of Art. 1299 and i. 3 of Art. 1300 of the RF CC have been determined more specifically: for deletion or modification of information about the author or other right holder – from 1 thousand to 100 thousand rubles (i. 3 of Art. 1300 of the RF CC); for use of a work with deleted or modified information about the author or for deletion of technical means of protection – from 11 thousand to 11 million rubles, 220% of the cost of the counterfeit copies or 220% of the cost of the use rights (i. 2 of Art.1301 of the RF CC); for making or other handling of devices for interfering with technical means – from 10 thousand to 5 million rubles (i. 3 of Art. 1299 of the RF CC).
Giving a more specific definition of infringement of the exclusive right and setting clear principles of compensation size calculation creates a more predictable and apprehensible environment for intellectual property market players.
