On April 11, 2024, in Moscow, the annual Pravo.ru conference "Pharmaceuticals – 2024: Legal Issues" will take place. Lidings lawyers traditionally take an active part in the event’s program.

As a strategic partner of the conference, we have endeavored to make the program as comprehensive and useful as possible. Together with experts from the pharmaceutical industry and legal experts, we will discuss current issues in industry regulation, legislative changes, market access, government procurement, and distribution. We will also touch upon marketing and promotion issues, as well as discuss strategies for protecting intellectual property.

In March 2024 Lidings partner Stepan Guzey visited the UAE (Dubai), Oman (Muscat), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) and Bahrain (Manama) during his regular business trip to the Middle East.

During the two-week visit Stepan held more than 25 business meetings with representatives of leading local law firms and government agencies to establish and strengthen partnerships, as well as discussed current and future projects with clients to whom Lidings provides comprehensive legal support for both outward and inward investment projects in the Middle East region.

Lidings invites to take part in scientific-practical conference "DESIGN: 9 Landmark Cases". The event will take place online from 2 PM to 5 PM Moscow time.

On 15 February 2024, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 122 “On Improving the Procedure for Decision-Making on the Use of Inventions, Utility Models and Industrial Designs to Ensure the Economic Security of the Russian Federation” (“Decree”), which requires the Russian Government to form a Sub-commission on the use of inventions, utility models and industrial designs (“Sub-Commission”). The Sub-Commission will be formed under the Government Commission on Economic Development and Integration.

The Federation Council has approved the draft law No. 390361-8 “On Amending Article 1248 of Part Four of the Russian Civil Code” (the “Draft law”). The Draft law will shortly be signed by the President and will enter into force 10 days after its publication.

According to the Draft law, article 1248(2) of the Russian Civil Code will be amended with a provision on the possibility to reimburse the costs borne before Rospatent from the losing party.

On 1 January 2024 amendments to the Patent Regulations to the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC) came into force, affecting various aspects related to the implementation of administrative procedures aimed at obtaining a Eurasian patent for invention and industrial design.

The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade has drafted amendments to Presidential decree No. 81 of March 1, 2022 (the "Decree"), which would extend the special procedure for transactions established by the Decree to transactions involving intellectual property. The draft is currently at the stage of anti-corruption expertise.

In accordance with the current version of the Decree, certain types of transactions with persons from "unfriendly" countries may be carried out only on the basis of permits issued by the Government Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation (the "Government Commission").