Maxim Ali helped “Pravo.ru” compile a list of the top intellectual property court cases for 2021

Maxim Ali - Partner

The Pravo.ru portal has prepared an overview of the most significant court decisions in intellectual property cases in 2021.

One of them was a dispute between VKontakte and Double Data, which used its own algorithms to collect and use for commercial purposes the data of users of the social network without the consent of the site. According to Double Data, the data collection software is a search engine through which publicly available information can be found, which is not prohibited by law. However, according to VKontakte’s position, the social network is a database owned by V Kontakte LLC. Collection and storage of information posted on users’ pages without “VKontakte’s” consent violates its exclusive right to this database. The case was heard by the Moscow City Arbitration Court, the Intellectual Rights Court and was returned to the first instance. In March 2021, the Moscow City Arbitration Court dismissed VKontakte’s claim, but the decision was overturned by the 9th Arbitration Court of Appeal and the case was resubmitted to the IPC. The hearing is scheduled for 9 February 2022.

Maxim Ali, Partner and Head of Intellectual Property and Information Technologies practice at Maxima Legal, drew the attention of Pravo.ru to the fact that in no other case has the problem of protecting the content of databases been so acute. “The court must delineate the boundaries of what is permissible for certain data collection practices. This is important not only for lawyers but also for the digital market in general,” said the expert.

An important decision for court practice on protection of intellectual property was also made in the dispute between animation studio “Melnitsa” and individual entrepreneur Natalia Panina. The studio applied to the Arbitration Court of the Tambov region with a statement of claim to recover compensation from the IP for infringement of exclusive rights in the amount of 80 thousand roubles. The plaintiff’s claims were satisfied, but the amount of compensation was reduced to 20 thousand roubles. The defendant considered that a reduction of the compensation below the minimum amount established by Art. 1515 of the Civil Code was evidence of partial satisfaction of her claims and applied to the court for recovery of court expenses from “Mill”. The courts sided with Panina, ordering the animation studio to pay over 40 thousand roubles. “Melnitsa filed a complaint with the Russian Constitutional Court, which found that a reduction of compensation below the minimum amount does not constitute partial satisfaction of the claim, due to the fact that the violation of an exclusive right is still considered proven.

“The Constitutional Court has pointed out that a reduction of compensation below the lower limit, where compensation itself has been claimed in the minimum amount, is a special power of the court. It should not be equated with a situation of partial satisfaction of the right holder’s claims,” explained Maxim Ali. According to the expert, in this way the Constitutional Court has protected right holders from an obviously unfair outcome of a dispute where there is more to lose than to gain.

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