On May 14, 2018 the Federal Law No. 325-FZ dated November 14, 2017 “On amendment to articles 19 and 23 of the Federal Law „On Currency Regulation and Currency Control“ and to the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation» (“the Law”) came into force.

The Federal law No. 127-FZ “On measures (countermeasures) in response to the hostile acts of the USA and other foreign countries” (“the Law”) has come into effect on June 04, 2018.

On 24 April 2018 the Intellectual Property Court published its Decision in case A41 85807/2016 between Swiss-based Novartis AG and local generic Nativa LLC.

At present, the direction of medicine, such as telemedicine, becomes more and more known and the number of questions about the procedure of providing medical assistance using telemedicine is also growing.

On March 21, 2018, the Russian Supreme Court published its Decision in case No. A55 5711/2014, which may have a dramatic impact on resolution of trademark non-use disputes.

On 1 June 2018 comes into force the federal law (the “Law 212-FZ”) which allows the parties to execute escrow agreements under Russian law.

The Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation (the “Minzdrav”) has developed draft law aimed to improve regulation of drugs circulation, namely in respect of the determination of drugs interchangeability (the "Draft Law“).

On the February, 1st 2018 the Federal Law No. 486-FZ “On Syndicated Loan and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” dated 31.12.2017 (hereinafter — the “Law”) came into force.

On April 13, 2018 the draft law (hereinafter — the “Draft law”) imposing measures (countermeasures) in response to the hostile acts of the USA and (or) other foreign countries has been introduced to State Duma by both State Duma’s chairman and parliamentary leaders.

On 1 June 2018 the Federal Law No. 212-FZ (“Law 212-FZ”) entered into force. Law 212-FZ changes the regulation of obligations and certain types of contracts. Below we review changes regarding cession, loan agreement, escrow account and letter of credit.