On August 1, 2021, the Federal Law "On Amendments to Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation" came into force.
According to the document, a procedure for preliminary information search and preliminary assessment of patentability for applications for inventions and utility models is being introduced with the involvement of accredited specialized organizations.
As accredited organizations, Russian organizations operating in specific areas of technology will be involved, with specialists in the staff with competencies in the field of information retrieval and assessment of the patentability of technical solutions.
Such organizations can be institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, research institutes, leading universities. Their accreditation will be carried out by Rospatent free of charge.
The areas of scientific competence of the organization are determined according to the indexes of the International Patent Classification or the Joint Patent Classification. The following areas were selected as pilot areas: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology in medicine, IT technologies, supercomputer technologies and space technologies.
The procedure for conducting an information search, provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, is preserved and will be carried out by Rospatent, taking into account the results of the preliminary procedures carried out.
