It has been hard for IP owners to take action against parallel imports in Russia in recent years. Traditionally cases had to be brought under the country's administrative code, which was not particularly effective, in part because the code only implies protection against parallel imports – in an article on exhaustion of rights. Things got worse when the Supreme Arbitration Court ruled in case involving Porsche that cases should not be brought under the administrative code, but the civil code. This created uncertainty and – perhaps more importantly – made cases expensive because the IP owner now had to bring cases itself, rather than being a third party.
Little by little, civil cases were brought. Initially, there were a few contradictory decisions. Finally, BMW brought a landmark case against Avtologistika against the import of spare parts. The ruling in favour of BMW survived appeal and being sent back to the first instance court. "Finally, we can say with 100% certainty that parallel imports can be blocked in Russia," says Vladimir Biriulin of Gorodissky & Partners.
This case was selected as one of Managing IP’s Cases of the Year for 2012.
To see the rest, click on one of the cases below.
The 10 cases of the year
A fillip for the EU pharmaceutical sector
Relief for trade mark owners in red sole saga
Australian TV streaming service held to be illegal
Smartphone war hits front page in the US
Liberalising the EU’s software market
Victory for fair dealing in Canada
Lacoste loses its trade mark in China
Google prevails in Android attack
EU test case clarifies class headings
Ten you might have missed
Canada: Ambiguous claims can invalidate patents
Russia: Certainty on parallel imports
Italy: TV formats win copyright for the first time
First FRAND cases litigated worldwide
Data exclusivity backed by Mexican courts
China: A shift over OEM manufacturing
Authors in the US able to reclaim joint copyrights
