Information and Comments on Intellectual Property Matters

Russian Patent Office Introduces New Official Fees for Trademarks

Recently significant changes occurred in the Russian trademark registration and protection policies. In January 2002 new official fees for registration of trademarks and related matters were introduced in the Russian Federation. The main feature of the change is that the great difference between the official fees for foreign and domestic applicants was liquidated - the fees are now the same for all applicants.

If we analyse the introduced changes from the point of view of a foreign applicant, it will be seen that the filing and registration fees became a bit greater, whereas the fees for filing appeals with appellate bodies of the Russian Patent Office, including those directed against other trademark holders, have decreased substantially.

  1. The official fee for filing a trademark application in Russia is now about $275 for the first class and $50 for each class in excess of 1. Formerly, the standard fee of $300 covered up to five classes and additional fee of $50 were payable for each class in excess of 5.
  2. The official fee for registration of a mark is now $320 instead of the former $250.
  3. The fee for filing appeal against decision of the examination is only $100, it used to be $400.
  4. The fee for filing request against registration of a mark (on the registrability grounds) is now $260, formerly it was $700.
  5. The decisions of the Board of appeals could be appealed further with the Supreme Patent Board for, correspondingly, only $100 and $260.
  6. The fee for filing request for cancellation of registration of mark due to non-use is now only $170 , while it used to be $800.
  7. The official fee for filing Request for acknowledgement a trademark well-known actually has been decreased by two times and now it is about $800.

The new fees are supposed to end the formerly wide spread Russian practice of registering a mark in all 42 classes, or at least in 10-15 classes.
It is also expected that these changes will help foreign trademark owners fight against the abusive actions and improve the situation with trademark protection in Russia more generally.


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