Ukrainian Conflict Impacts U.S. Patent Holders in Russia: Patent Professor on KOGO Radio San Diego

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Russia has effectively legalized patent theft from anyone affiliated with countries, unfriendly to it, declaring that unauthorized use will not be compensated.

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Joining us on the Cago News Live line, the patent Professor John Rizvi, now is this essentially basically a free for all when it comes to theft and counterfeiting and using other people's intellectual property. Yeah, it is.

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And I think people forget that patent, you know, patent rights are territorial. So there's no such thing as a world patent. So they're based on geography, and in times of war, like countries protect their own territory. And that's exactly what's happening with these two decrees that are in Russia, essentially allowing anyone to, to violate patents with no consequences.

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So let's talk about companies like McDonald's like Starbucks, what does this mean for them?

00:57
So it's, first of all, it's a huge economic losses for the physical plants, like Coca Cola has got shadows, I think McDonald's has $50 million a month of losses, they have 850 physical stores. But from an intellectual property standpoint, Russia could reopen those stores without permission. And all of the money goes right into the oligarchs pockets.

01:24
Well, that doesn't seem good. So you know, I mean, what can be done? It's Vladimir Putin's world, the rest of us apparently are just renting.

01:33
It's, it's, you know, there's some steps companies can take, there are limited options, but certainly anyone with a bigger patent portfolio, they need to take an inventory, get a picture of what IP they have that's registered in Russia. Second, they can document exactly how the IP is being used. And for, for example, for software and hardware companies, they can look at methods of like trying to block reverse engineering, or piracy. It's it really is that a technology solution might be the best option at this point. Because, you know, in times of war, I guess they say always fair. So that's, that's unfortunately, the the options that are left is to try to find a technical solution, try to see if there's some way to at least document the piracy so that if they have to bring legal action in the future, they have the evidence and the documentation to do that.

02:30
All right, the patent Professor John Rizvi joining us on The Koga News Live line, thank you for your time this morning.

02:36
Thank you. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.