Post Number Nine27 March 2012The implementation/ & execution/ & performance/ of the law The core of Montesquieus

insight remains a festering wound on the public weal and in governmental institutions everywhere and to this very day. Thus the Russian organ of State power responsible for intellectual property rights the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents, & Trademarks/ , (http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/ukaz673.html) may well just sit and wait until (1) Russias WTO accession is ratified by the State Duma and signed by the President (i.e., before the 03 July deadline set by the Ministry on the Economy [http://www.economy.gov.ru/minec/press/massmedia/doc20120124_002]) plus (2) someone complains about an unfulfilled need to revise Russian IPR legislation/ or regulations/. However, in our ultra-frenetic, profit-preoccupied 21st century, business survival as well as success demands foresight thinking outside of the proverbial boxes plus ahead of the curves. Thus the matter of responding to the notable election made by Russia not to have a transition period (see Point 1226 at p. 316 of the Report of the Working Party on the accession of the Russian Federation to the World Trade Organization, WT/ACC/RUS/70 & WT/MIN(11)/2, 608 pp. [17 November 2011]) to accomplish satisfaction of the one hundred-plus points in the WTOs checklist (WT/ACC/9 [1999] & WT/ACC/9/Corr.1 [2001]) for compliance with TRIPS (see Post Number OneAn Introduction & An Initial Post-02 Jan 2012-Words) presents a genuine business opportunity as well as significant governmental obligation. The WTOs accession process does not lack for painstaking attention to detail (http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/acc_e/cbt_course_e/signin_e.htm) and includes the pragmatic tool of a working party whose members track, question, and comment (note artfully couched as requests for clarification & expressions of concern) in the written reports leading up to the Ministerial Conference that approves accession. Care was taken in those reports to set forth not only the concerns and desires for clarification by the representatives of the parties but also the responses and assurances of the representative of the Russian Federation promising that legislative and regulatory changes had been effected and further reforms would be done in a progressive manner e.g., lifting its reservation to the Berne Convention by the time of its accession to the WTO. Point 1224 at p. 315 of the 17 November 2011, Report of the Working Parties, supra. A close reading of this checklist plus the statements found in this report reveal a list for attention plus initiative by the savvy. By way of a concrete example, concerns are expressed in Points 1229-1234 of that Report about technical means that are used to protect copyrights. The representative of the Russian Federation states that the exception in that provision had been eliminated and that by the date of the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO, the Russian Federation would ensure that this provision would be interpreted and applied in a reasonable manner in respect of technical means that were directed to circumvent technical protection measures based on criteria such as whether the device or service was promoted, advertised or marketed for the purpose of circumvention, whether the device or service had a purpose or use that was of limited commercial significance other than to circumvent technical means of protection, and whether the device or service was primarily designed, produced, adapted or performed for the purpose of permitting or facilitating circumvention of technical protection. Point 1232 at p. 317.

That this assurance contains good intentions is confirmed by 1299 of the 06 February 2012 draft text for the wholesale revision of all four parts of the Russian Civil Code that is being prepared under the auspices of, among others, the School for Russian Private Law (http://www.privlaw.ru/) and the Institute of State & Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (http://www.igpran.ru/). That text is available for downloading and the relevant proposed addition to 1299 read at http://www.privlaw.ru/index.php?&page_news=2. Whether or not the draft legislation closes the proverbial circle in answer to the concerns of some members of the working parties, the fact remains that before it comes legally valid, the draft must pass readings and votes by the Federal Assembly plus the signature of the Russian President.