The issue of compulsory licenses for patent rights to pharmaceuticals is becoming more and more controversial in Russia, due to the growing number of important court rulings involving compulsory licenses affecting leaders of the pharma industry over the last few years.

Vegas Lex has won what it calls "two crushing victories" in the Arbitration Court of the North-Western District in the interests of pharmaceutical company Alium in disputes related to the construction contract of a large pharmaceutical plant. 

BGP Litigation has announces the opening of a Family Law practice.

Liniya Prava has helped the VTB Group attract investors to Demeter Holding.

The Russian government has approved the rules* for selling over-the-counter (OTC) drugs online.

Debevoise & Plimpton is advising PAO TMK, a producer of tubular products for the oil and gas industry, on the repurchase of its regular shares by subsidiary Volzhsky Pipe Plant JSC, and on the prospective delisting of TMK’s global depositary receipts from the London Stock Exchange.

Gorodissky & Partners lawyers Sergey Vasiliev, Valentin Kirilov, and Elizaveta Popova have joined the firm's partnership.

In late April 2020, the ban was lifted on the provision of services related to the conclusion of insurance contracts in electronic form by insurance agents and brokers.

Akin Gump has advised PJSC Lukoil on its issuance of USD 1.5 billion Eurobonds listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. Clifford Chance advised joint lead managers Citigroup, Societe Generale CIB, and Bank GPB International S.A. (Gazprombank).

On 1 April 2020, amendments* came into force allowing Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to enter additional information about themselves on the Fedresurs* website, as well as information relating to individual terms of contracts they enter into.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has advised PJSC Sovcombank and Mobile Payments LLC on their entrance into a partnership with IDRAM LLC and IDBank CJSC, which were advised by TA Legal Consulting.

As of 27 July 2020, geographical indications on products will be protected in Russia. It will be possible to register them with the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent). These changes are the result of the entry into force of recent amendments to the Russian Civil Code.

Alrud has advised the Mechel Group on the sale of its 51% participatory interest in the companies which operate the Elga coalfield project in Russia to A-Property. Monastyrsky, Zyuba, Stepanov & Partners advised A-Property on the deal, which was valued at RUB 89 billion.

Starting in March 2020, Rospatent implemented Covid-19 pandemic containment measures in line with the high-alert regime adopted by the authorities. In particular, new rules were established for handling communication with applicants during the obligatory self-isolation period, such as a ban on accepting paper-based applications and other measures restricting direct communication.

On 21 April 2020, the Russian Supreme Court clarified in an official Review certain issues of judicial practice related to the application of legislation in the context of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 and more specifically in relation to:

In The Corner Office feature of CEE Legal Matters we ask Managing Partners at leading law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. In light of current events, the question for this online occurrence of the feature is: "What have been the top three most often asked COVID-19 related questions that you have gotten from clients in the last month?”

DLA Piper has advised Debex on the sale of a minority stake in the company to Dmitry Shushkin, the managing director of ABBYY Russia.

White & Case has advised VTB Bank on the USD 1.7 billion restructuring of Russian mining and metal company Mechel PAO and on various matters connected to the related sale of the Elga Coal Complex, one of Mechel's main assets.