Valid pledge of trademarks, service marks, patents, utility models, industrial designs and integral microcircuit topologies is made possible with implementation of the procedure for the state registration of pledge of intellectual property rights.

The registration procedure was adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and came into force on 12 June 2009.1

Perfection of the pledge of intellectual property

For the pledge of intellectual property to be valid it is necessary to perfect it by way of state registration.2 The state registration is conducted by Rospatent3 by way of registration of the pledge agreement according to the procedure described below.

Procedure for the registration of the pledge of intellectual property

The procedure for the registration of the pledge of intellectual property is the following.

Application for the state registration

An application for the registration of the pledge may be submitted to Rospatent by either pledgor or pledgee. An application for the registration must be accompanied with the following documents:

  1. the pledge agreement with respect to the intellectual property (or an extract from it containing all its essential provisions);
  2. a document evidencing payment by the applicant of the stamp duty;
  3. a power of attorney (if necessary).

Formal verification

Upon receipt of the application Rospatent makes a formal verification of the submitted documents. Rospatent examines (a) whether every required document is submitted and (b) whether the submitted documents are made up in such a way that they can be easily read.

Period of formal verification

The formal verification must be finished by Rospatent no later than within 10 business days from the date of receipt by Rospatent of the application and accompanying documents.

Compliance assessment

After the formal verification has been completed and if the submitted documents are complete and easily readable, Rospatent determines whether the submitted documents comply with the registration requirements. In particular, Rospatent examines (a) whether a provision of the pledge agreement contradicts another provision of the pledge agreement; and (b) whether the provisions of the pledge agreement contradict imperative rules of the Russian law.

Period of compliance assessment

The compliance assessment must be finished by Rospatent no later than within 2 months from receipt of the submitted documents.

Registration of the pledge agreement or refusal to register the pledge agreement

After the compliance assessment has been completed: Rospatent must register the pledge agreement in the state register of relevant intellectual property if the submitted documents comply with the registration requirements, otherwise the registration must be refused.

Notification

Rospatent must notify the applicant of the registration of the pledge agreement (or its refusal to register the pledge agreement) no later than within 2 months from the receipt of the submitted documents.

Footnotes

1 Decree of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation No.321 dated 29 October 2008

2 Article 1232 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

3 The Federal service on intellectual property, patent and trade marks of the Russian Federation

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.