Analogues, Counterfeits, and Reverse Engineering

Many of the legal norms and explanations from Russia’s highest judicial authorities are devoted to regulating relations involving the suppression of violations of exclusive rights to various types of intellectual property. There are also a large number of court disputes concerning the enforcement of laws in which the decisions formed the basis of recommended approaches to determining the illegality of a particular activity involving the use of intellectual property and defining counterfeit products. However, the latest judicial practice shows that the scope of violations has changed significantly. This can also be seen in patent disputes, when the offending party who is actually using a protected item claims that it is only using an analogue. The degree of counterfeiting in the IT industry has expanded, but we can still successfully combat it, including through the timely deposit of software. There have also been significant changes in approaches to rebranding. The current situation needs to be analysed not only in terms of the violations themselves, but also their related aspects. What kind of problems are associated with the quality of products imported via parallel imports and confirming their origin? What difficulties arise when using the institution of mandatory licensing? What signs can be used to distinguish an analogue or reverse engineered object from a protected one?