Post Number 5727 October 2012An IPR Question Set With A Start Towards Some Answers A sensible place

to start is with a search for comparative data sources about Russian patents available in the worlds IPR marketplace of ideas and the governmental registers of legal property rights. Thus substantial answers and corroborating databases are to be found in resources such as are gathered, organized, and published by, among others, the WIPO (http://www.wipo.int/wipogold/en/), the Russian Federal Intellectual Property Service (FIPS; http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/), and the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO; http://www.eapo.org/eng/ea/intro/). The WIPO is an assiduous and accomplished compiler as well as an analyst of statistics. For example, in its World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2011 Edition, it is reported that the second world-wide wave of growth in patent filings, i.e., during 1995-2008, see Special SectionCauses Of Worldwide Growth In Patent Filings, p. 23, new Russian inventions were the main factor behind the growth in filings (http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/ipstats/en/wipi/pdf/941_2011_special_section.pdf). In other words, 95% or more of those filings were first filings, in contrast to the experience in the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the UK where 50% to 90% of growth was owing to subsequent filings. In its economics & statistics publication series, this international organization has more recently released its WIPO IP Facts & Figures, 2012, which for 2008-10 shows Russia (p. 17) to have been seventh in terms of volume in the list of the top performing patent offices by achieving a growth of 10.2% between 2009-10 that was third place behind China and the EU with the US in fifth place behind India (http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/freepublications/en/statistics/943/wipo_pub_943_2 012.pdf). From my years as the CLO of the ISTC, there are several points that complicate the process of understanding the statistics kept by the WTO, FIPS, and the Eurasian Patent Office. Prominent among them is a practical reality relating to a ubiquitous legal directive made in domestic IPR legislation that obliges inventors to file for patents initially in the country where the invention is created see, Russian Civil Code 1395[1] (An application for the issuance of a patent for an invention or utility model created in the Russian Federation may be filed with a foreign state or with an international organization upon the expiration of six months from the date of filing of the corresponding application with the Federal agency of executive authority for intellectual property, unless within the aforesaid time period the applicant has been informed that the application contains information constituting a state secret. An application for an invention or utility model may be filed earlier than the aforesaid time period but, after the conduct on the request of the applicant of a verification for the presence in the application of information constituting a state secret. The procedure for the conduct of such a verification shall be established by the Government of the Russian Federation.) The problem is that this legal prerequisite is often honored in its breach!