The Federal Tax Service and Rospatent, the Russian patent office, have entered into a cooperation agreement which provides for the exchange of information between the two bodies for the purpose of monitoring compliance with tax legislation.
For tax inspection purposes, Rospatent will allow the tax service free online access to its databases, which hold information on inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks and service marks that are protected within the Russian territory. The agreement also allows the tax service to search for information on objects of intellectual property and to link such information to individuals; the scope of such searches extends to registered assignments and licence agreements.
If official confirmation of Rospatent's database information is needed, or if the necessary information is unavailable, the tax service will submit an enquiry to Rospatent. Enquiries must be processed immediately and answered within 15 working days. The information supplied is confidential and is for official use only. The agreement describes the technical conditions for information sharing between the tax service and Rospatent, as well as details of the search methods to be used. The agreement is ongoing and came into force on December 28 2010.
For further information on this topic please contact Eugene Arievich or Alisa Fomina at Baker & McKenzie - CIS Limited by telephone (+7 495 787 2700), fax (+7 495 787 2701) or email ([email protected] or [email protected]).