Trading partners on USTR’s “Priority Watch List” present the most significant concerns this year regarding insufficient IP protection or enforcement or actions that otherwise limited market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection. In USTR’s 2022 Special 301 Report, Russia was named to the Priority Watch List.

Among the issues highlighted in the 2022 report were lack of enforcement, inadequate protection of copyright, piracy, royalty collection and management, counterfeit goods from China, and trade secret regime.

At the Commerce Department’s STOPfakes website, the Office of Standards and Intellectual Property (OSIP) maintains an IP Snapshot for Russia with additional information on the Russian IP regime.

In any foreign market, companies should consider several general principles for the effective protection of their intellectual property. For more background, please see OSIP’s article on Protecting Intellectual Property abroad and visit the Stopfakes website for more resources.

The IP Attaché for Eurasia, based in Kyiv, Ukraine, (temporarily out of Washington, DC) is Dorian Mazurkevich, at Dorian.Mazurkevich@trade.gov.

For more information, contact ITA’s Office of Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (OSIP) Director, Stevan Mitchell at Stevan.Mitchell@trade.gov.

The State Department’s 2021 Investment Climate Statement for Russia includes information on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the Russian economy.