(Russian Federation) The law on changing the procedure for state registration of intellectual property objects was signed

Federal Law of July 31, 2020 N 262-FZ "On Amendments to Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation"

It is stipulated that Rospatent accredits a Russian scientific or educational organization as an organization that can conduct a preliminary information search in relation to the claimed inventions or utility models and a preliminary assessment of their patentability (Articles 1384, 1386 and 1390 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The procedure for accrediting a scientific or educational organization and the requirements for it, as well as the grounds and procedure for terminating its accreditation, are established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

The applicant gets the opportunity to request in scientific and educational institutions accredited by Rospatent to conduct a preliminary information search and preliminary assessment of the patentability of inventions and utility models, the results of which are taken into account before Rospatent makes a decision to grant a patent, to refuse to grant a patent, or to recognize the application as withdrawn.

"ConsultantPlus: New in Russian legislation from July 28 to August 3, 2020"

Note: the outlined  above changes would take into effect in 1 year after official publication.

The text of corresponding Article 1 of of 262-FZ.the is given here.

In particular, applicant would have right to amend claims based on  the reports preliminary patent search and preliminary patentability assessment; and such reports would be available to public after publication of the patent issuance. (Art.1 Sec. 4b and 6 of 262-FZ)

As accredited organizations, Russian organizations operating in specific areas of technology will be involved, [if they] staffed by specialists with competencies in the field of information retrieval and assessment of the patentability of technical solutions. In particular, such organizations can be institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, research institutes, leading universities...

Applicants will be able to use the preliminary information search service on a voluntary basis. The cost of services will be determined by scientific and educational institutions based on the complexity, volume and duration of each information search in the contracts concluded between the applicant and organizations.

Thanks to the law, more specialists will appear in the country with practical skills in conducting information patent search and assessing patentability, analyzing patent and other documentation in various fields of science and technology. As a consequence, the quality (reliability) of patents will increase due to the involvement of such industry specialists in specific narrow and latest fields of science and technology.

(Rospatent News, July 31, 2020)

See an additional Rospatent commentary in an article published in a major government newspaper: 

Duel, Alexey. Scientists will help Rospatent evaluate applications for inventions (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, July 31, 2020)