Supreme Court Upholds Practice of Filing Divisional-of-Divisional Applications

On June 4, 2024, the Judicial Panel of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in response to appeals by the pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca AB and Rospatent, overturned the controversial resolutions of the Presidium of the IP Court in cases Nos. SIP-552/2022 and SIP-570/2022. To recall, the generic drug manufacturer KRKA d.d. Novo mesto challenged the issuance of RF patents Nos. 2337916 and 2643764, citing incorrect priority establishment and interpreting paragraph 4 of Article 1381 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in an unexpected manner, which was agreed upon by the Presidium of the IP Court. By overturning the resolutions, the Supreme Court preserved the traditional interpretation and, accordingly, the possibility of filing an essentially unlimited chain of divisional applications. Case SIP-552/2022 resolution and Case SIP-570/2022 resolution.