Legal Issues of Software Protection in the Russian Federation

IP protection of software continues being one of the most underdeveloped areas of Russian intellectual property law. With the rapid development of e-commerce, global unification of IP law and gradual implementation and automation of business algorithms in computerized form across countries, the problem of working out the most efficient and suitable way to protect programs becomes extremely relevant. There is no doubt that by eliminating imperfections embedded in outdated regulatory mechanisms we succeed in lowering legal and transaction costs which hinder developers’ abilities to innovate. Although the objective which has shaped the structure of the thesis is singular – to assess the current state of IP protection granted to software – throughout the research it has bifurcated into two separate issues, each implying its own method of research. The first part of the thesis traces legal definitions of a computer program. The third part of the thesis attempts to analyze the currently functioning system of copyright protection for software by pointing out its flaws and advantages, while also suggesting what provisions could be changed in order to achieve a better result. The second part describes three modes of software protection with reference to European and American jurisprudence. Essentially, the second part involves a comparative analysis of judicial practice and legal theories which informed the advanced understanding and heated debates surrounding software in these jurisdictions. In particular, patent protection of software is analyzed in close detail in order to give a tentative answer to an important normative question: Should such form of protection be embraced by Russian law in a comprehensive manner? The final part of the work assembles the conclusions arrived at in the preceding sections.