On October 24, the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce hosted an IP-BATTLE event on internet addressing infrastructure versus right holders, organized by the IP CLUB with the support of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and the STATUT Law School.
Intellectual property protection is still a hot topic. Copyright holders and trademark owners are developing additional legal means to protect themselves, such as an institute of information mediators. Article 1253.1 of the Civil Code sets out the responsibilities of information mediators, but its provisions are often subject to broad interpretation, so people who are not in fact information mediators can be held liable.
The discussion was moderated by Coordination Center Deputy Director Sergei Kopylov and IP CLUB President Marina Rozhkova. The participants, including representatives of the infrastructure and right holders, sought a compromise position for these opposing sides. Andrei Kuzmichev (RU-CENTER) vividly demonstrated how providers and registries see the right holders’ position. He believes that most right holders do not even try to find the real criminals because it takes too much time and effort, an opinion shared by many representatives of infrastructure companies. In most cases, they find a scape goat, most often the internet or hosting provider, and file a claim against them. The same situation happens with registries, when right holders hold them liable instead of looking for the true criminals that violated domain rights. “We are strictly against piracy, but we must fight it in a different way,” Andrei Kuzmichev said.
IT companies were also represented by Vadim Perevalov (Baker McKenzie) and Andrei Alekseichuk (Kachkin & Partners). The right holders’ position was voiced by Roman Lukyanov (Semenov&Pevzner), Dmitry Kozhemyakin (Tomsk State University) and Anatoly Semyonov (Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service). Although right holders and infrastructure companies failed to reach agreement on all points and stood their ground, perhaps the discussion helped to bring them a bit closer.
“I urge both sides to cooperate: this is the only way to find a solution that would suit everyone. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ does a lot to prevent domain disputes: our website has a service to check trademarks that we created together with Online Patent. This service helps to check if your domain name infringes on any trademarks even before it is registered,” Sergei Kopylov said. He also invited everyone to join the Coordination Center’s Legal Issues Committee where right holders’ proposals on intellectual property protection could be discussed constructively.
