On November 29, the Cosmos Pavilion at VDNKh in Moscow hosted the 15th awards ceremony of the Runet Prize, a national prize for contributing to the development of the Russian segment of the internet. This year, the Runet Prize marks its 15th anniversary, and, as per tradition, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ was the official partner of the prize.
This year, the Coordination Center added a special category for lawyers and legal projects related to the internet: For a Contribution to the Development of Legal Ideas in the Digital Society. The IP&IT Law contest won the prize, and Professor Marina Rozhkova of Kutafin University (MSAL), president of the IP CLUB and a member of the Expert Council of the State Duma Committee for Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, accepted the prize on its behalf.
When awarding the prize, Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev noted that in three years IP&IT Law helped find many interesting and talented people. “We will continue to support the training of qualified specialists for our industry by teaching, organizing professional contests and encouraging their participants. It is very nice to find people who think the same, and it is also very nice to award them the prize they deserve,” Andrey Vorobyev noted.
IP&IT Law, a Russian youth contest for information technology and intellectual property law, has been held since 2016. Students from state and private universities, post-graduates, young specialists who graduated no more than three years ago and 11th-graders from Russia and other countries can enter the contest. Winners are usually announced at the Russian Internet Governance Forum held each April, on the anniversary of the .RU domain. The contest is recognized at the international level: such reputable organizations as the European Court of Human Rights and the World Intellectual Property Organization are its partners. In 2017 and 2018, those who came in first place were awarded WIPO medals, which are a very prestigious prize, proving that WIPO highly regards the contest and the level of the contest entries.
Group IB, the Coordination Center’s long-time partner, won in the Cybersecurity category. Group IB was one of the two first companies to sign the Agreement on Cooperation in Countering and Preventing Crimes on the Internet and to work as a competent organization. Andrey Vorobyev congratulated Group IB and the runner-up – the Complex Security System Research and Trial Institute – and awarded them prizes.
