Abuse of Rights in Challenging Patents

The Intellectual Property Rights Court (IP Court) dismissed a cassation appeal seeking to invalidate 26 Russian patents for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs owned by a manufacturing plant. The plaintiff, a co-author of all the patents, argued that the plant had been unlawfully named as the sole patent holder without his consent.

The IP Court Presidium found that the plaintiff was abusing his rights, since:

• he sought full annulment of the patents, rather than correction of the patent holder designation;
• he thereby attempted to avoid payment of co-authors’ remuneration by the plant, which he controls.

The Court held that full invalidation would deprive all authors, including the plaintiff himself, of the right to receive remuneration, while allowing the plaintiff to unilaterally exploit the technical solutions without the respondent’s permission.