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Russian federal intellectual property service (Rospatent) is not so guiltless as believes office of the Attorney-General

The Russian office of attorney-general has inspected activity of Russian Federal intellectual property service (or Russian Federal service for intellectual property) (Rospatent) and the results of this inspection are not so positive – failures “on all levels” have been found.

The office of attorney-general has inspected Federal service for Intellectual property and Federal Institute of industrial property (FIPS). As reported RBC, in report it is stated that in the field of intellectual property an administrative barriers and “red tapes” “on all levels” have been indicated. Service does not examine all applications in time, did not approve necessary procedures and shifts the provision of its services in electronic format too slow. Certainly Rospatent denies all these assertions.

The office of attorney-general made conclusion, that despite the current law all Rospatent’s services are provided only by FIPS, starting from acceptance and registration of applications and ending up with state registration and issuing certificate of a patent. In 2015 FIPS examined over 139 thousands applications from entrepreneurs.

Selective inspection has revealed more than 30 cases when applications for registration of trademarks have been examined too long, sometimes more than two years. Examination of application for inventions mostly delayed and objections of entrepreneurs are considered during long time (up to 5 months) – two times more than it is prescribed by law.

Three administrative procedures on providing state services are not coordinated with officers from Ministry of economic development. Current procedures are also not ideal – terms of examination are not reasonable, some rules do not contain deadlines when certain services must be fulfilled and some terms, when documents should be issued, differ from item to item. Rospatent does not provide all necessary information on its website as believes office of Attorney-General. Besides, data about trademarks registration are published with delay.

Such failures are caused by different reasons. Among them there is one – Rospatent does not inspect FIPS. “Since 2014 service has not made any ordinary inspection of referred organisation concerning the matter of completeness and quality of state services to be provided”, – stated in report. Rospatent also does not monitor how FIPS expends financial resources.

Rospatent also violates procedures of inspection. For example, information about inspection of certain organisation has been brought into single registry one day prior to notification of such organisation. “Such facts encroach the rights of business persons and does not improve business climate”, – stated in report.

After duly exercised inspection supervision authority has initiated proceedings under articles of administrative code – “Violation of law about organisation of provision of state and municipal services” and “Violation of requirements to organisation of access to information about activity of state authorities”.