Crimea: Time extension for Re-Registration

The secession from Ukraine and consequent annexation to Russia of the territory of Crimea has resulted in the integration into the economic, financial, credit and legal system of the Russian Federation.

The treaty of March 18, 2014 that determined the terms of the annexation to Russia envisaged that Russian patents and trademarks would be valid and enforceable in the territory of Crimea, on the contrary to Ukrainian patents and trademarks which would no longer be considered valid or feasable.

For this reason, the Government of Russia allowed for the Crimean trademark owners to apply for a re-registration at the Russian Patent Office (Rospatent) free of charge until January 2015.

Considering that many of the trademark owners failed to accomplish the deadline due to the lack of information or impossibility to file the applications, many of the re-registrations occurred after the deadline of January 2015, therefore the Government of the Russian Federation extended the term for re-registration until January 1, 2016.