Maxim Ali told Legal Information Agency how to protect non-copyrighted objects

Under the current Russian Civil Code, copyrights do not apply to ideas, concepts, principles, methods, processes, systems, methods, solutions to technical, organisational or other problems, discoveries, facts, programming languages and geological information about subsurface resources. Specially for Legal Information Agency (LIA), Maxim Ali, Head of the Intellectual Property and Information Law practice at Maxima Legal, explained how creators of such objects can protect their developments.

Maxim Ali, Partner, Head of Intellectual Property and Information Law Practice:

“Concepts, methods and other similar objects are not protected by copyright, but can be protected through, for example, patenting. But this is only possible when a new technical solution is presented. And names, logos and other elements of appearance (identity) are registered as trademarks – a universal approach that works to protect TV shows and games as well as any other, even non-entertainment business.

Business processes and plans are the most difficult to patent due to the direct prohibitions contained in Russian and foreign law. One option for protection is to recognise their know-how. The problem is that the know-how has to be confidential. So if your processes are in plain sight (in a restaurant it could be a customer service sequence or its “tricks”), this mechanism will no longer work.

Again, the appearance of uniforms or the typical interior can be registered as trademarks, devices for announcing the readiness of orders or calling waiters can be patented, and agreements on the transfer of rights can be concluded with the authors of menus and other materials.

In any case, it should be understood that legal protections are almost never comprehensive. They do not permanently and completely eliminate other competitors from the market. A regular release of updated versions to the market may be more profitable than spending too much money to protect a single obsolete product. It is therefore worth paying particular attention to whether a company has stopped short in trying to protect developments that the market no longer needs.

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