Expert Opinion: «Information Technologies and Intellectual Property» questions and answers

The National Center of Intellectual Property publishes the speakers' answers on the questions posed by the participants of the round table «Information Technologies and Intellectual Property» at the TIBO 2024 forum.

Question: Regarding patent law: is there a difference in the protection of intellectual property (for example, components of a game) in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, the Commonwealth of Independent States and all over the world? What organizations should be applied to in the first, second and third cases?

The response was provided by Darya Lando (Head of Legal Department of ODO «LEKSPATENT», Associate Professor, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor of the Civil Law Department of the Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University):

I confirm that there is a difference in the systems of protection of intellectual property objects depending on the country. For example, in the Russian Federation, databases may be not only an object of copyright (as in the Republic of Belarus), but also an object of neighbouring rights (in terms of their protection against unauthorised extraction and re-use of the materials constituting their content). Not all countries provide protection for utility models (for more details see here).

A distinctive feature of copyright and neighbouring rights objects is the granting of protection upon creation. Certain organizations may undertake the function of optional, voluntary registration and deposit of such objects. More information about registration and deposit of such objects in the National Center of Intellectual Property can be found at the link. The United States of America has established the United States Copyright Office.

Patenting was mentioned in the question. In patenting, the patent offices of various countries and international organizations (in particular, the Eurasian Patent Organization) play a significant role, as they assess the possibility of granting protection to an intellectual property object (or, more precisely, an object of industrial property right). When it is a question of assistance of specialists in identifying patentable subject matter and preparing applications, organizations of patent attorneys traditionally assist.

The record of the roundtable discussion is available via the link.

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