Maxim Ali told Delovoy Peterburg whether the rights to software with fragments of open source can be protected

A criminal case under Article 146 Part 1 (copyright infringement) was reopened in Saint Petersburg, in which Leonid Svatkov, CEO of Altel LLC, accuses Pavel Smolensky, a former top manager of the company, of illegally copying software. According to the defendant, the coincidence is explained by the fact that both products contain a large amount of publicly available open source software. At the same time, both opponents believe that legislation protecting intellectual property rights to code is underdeveloped in Russia.

Maxim Ali, Partner, Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, drew the attention of Delovoy Peterburg to the point that, in fact, there is a sufficient legal framework in Russia to protect the rights to code. However, in most cases such disputes are of civil nature.

“If fragments of the open source software coincide in two programs, we cannot speak of copying from the software being compared. After all, this very free software belongs in general to third parties – “contributors” who in due time made the code open and made it publicly available,” the expert noted.

To read the full article (in Russian) please visit Delovoy Peterburg website >>>