The session of the Talent and Success Foundation ‘Investing in Young Innovators: Intellectual Property and Youth Projects’ was held on 14 February on Young Enterprise Day as part of the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi.

The biggest concern of the young entrepreneurs who gathered for the session was how to patent their inventions: indeed, it is rather difficult to sort out all the legal details without expert help. Ilya Kononenko, Head of the Department for Support and Development of Portal Solutions at the Federal Institute of Industrial Property, explained that a patent application could be filed on the site of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent). He added that Russian law envisaged significant benefits for school and college students and getting a patent would not be a ‘serious trial’ for the budget of a young entrepreneur.

In turn, Alina Akinshina, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Online Patent, commented that there were two ways to obtain a patent: either an inventor chooses to grapple with the law on their own or should apply to experts for help. She recommended the second choice, noting that “a patent is not a goal in itself but a means, and a businessman needs to understand clearly the tasks of his project”. The speaker dispersed the widespread myths in this sphere, saying that “a start-up with poor protection documents is worth even less than a start-up with no patents at all”.

Vladimir Elin, Associate Professor of the Information Security Department at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, stressed that a patent as such would not bring cash to a project: it had to be commercialized.

Many entrepreneurs believe that Russian law is imperfect and try to get a patent abroad. In any case, such businessmen have to file their applications to international organizations via the site of Rospatent, or they will violate the law.