Intellectual Property Rights and the Russia-ukraine War

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Author: John Pavolotsky
• Publication year: 2023
• Citation: Vol. 48 No. 1

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

John Pavolotsky

ELEVEN MONTHS INTO THE WAR: A REVIEW OF NEW LEGAL AND IP POLICY DEVELOPMENTS

January 14, 2023

Yet another rainy Saturday morning in the San Francisco Bay Area. Third one in a row. We need the rain, but enough is enough. More than 6,000 miles away, the war continues. Only one article in today's Wall Street Journal, with Moscow claiming that its forces captured the town of Soledar, about 20 kilometers from Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv disagrees. So it goes.

When this article becomes available to you, the war, the longest in Europe since World War II, will have passed its first anniversary. All wars end, but the end of this one is nowhere in sight. For Vladimir Putin, this is a war of destiny, about his place in history, next to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. For Ukraine, this is about sovereignty and self-determination. Something has to give.

This is my third article on the impact of the war on IP matters in Ukraine and Russia. My first article on this topic appeared in the Fall (2022) issue of New Matter. I was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the United States in 1979. The interest in the current situation, from an IP perspective, and otherwise, is beyond academic.

From an IP perspective, we are still in a holding pattern. Questions persist. For example, is there a prohibition on U.S. persons' and entities' involvement in the prosecution of patents in Russia? No. General License No. 13C (November 21, 2022) expires on March 7, 2023 (12:01 a.m. eastern standard time), and generally permits U.S. persons or entities owned or controlled by U.S. persons to "pay taxes, fees, or import duties, and purchase or receive permits, licenses...