Why this project is needed?

Russia's IPR system has been discussed a lot lately. Although the legislation would allow an efficient IPR system, IPR violations are common. The key challenge in the Russian IPR system seems to be enforcement of the laws. The existing regulations are applied only selectively due to inefficiency of the administrative enforcement mechanisms.

According to foreign estimates, no serious efforts have been made to eliminate and prevent the obvious violations of intellectual property laws such as pirated copies of CDs, DVDs and drugs. In this connection, a special attention needs to be paid to improve awareness of the specific target groups on importance of protecting IPR, connection of the pirated copies to the organized criminal activity as well as enforcement of existing laws.

Project Objectives

The key long-term objective of the project is to promote respect for and protection of intellectual property rights in St.Petersburg for two reasons:
     1) to make it more attractive to do business in the area of the city of St. Petersburg and
     2) to decrease the income of organized crime networks from counterfeit goods.

Furthermore, a long-term objective is to enhance cooperation between the city of St. Petersburg in Russia, Finland and Denmark in preventing and eliminating violations of intellectual property rights, piracy and counterfeit.

Project Beneficiaries

The project will target the St. Petersburg City authorities responsible for IPR protection and enforcement that have a crucial role in design, management, monitoring and evaluation of the local IPR protection and enforcement systems and distribution of information to the relevant authorities and target groups.

Finnish and Danish IPR experts from public and private sector will also benefit from the project, increasing their knowledge of the Russian IPR legal system and its implementation and developing contacts to relevant Russian IPR experts from public and private sector.

Partnership Background

The project is an outcome of collaboration between the city of St. Petersburg, the Baltic Institute of Finland, the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland and the UNDP local office in St. Petersburg.  

Cooperation to enhance protection and enforcement of IPR was established as a result of two events. The first was a seminar on IPR in Russia, organized in Helsinki, Finland together with the Finnish National Board of Patents and Registration, Rospatent, the Baltic Institute of Finland and the UNDP in February 2004. The second was a high-level seminar on “Protection of Intellectual Property: Practices in Russia”, organized in St. Petersburg in close collaboration with the city of St. Petersburg, the Baltic Institute of Finland and the UNDP Russia targeting at Finnish authorities and IPR experts in October 2004.