Intellectual property protection

Legal protection of the intellectual property (IP) as created along the RFNC-VNIIEF innovation efforts is supported by the Patents and Scientific-Technical Information Department (OPINTI).

The professional staff is there doing patent research to evaluate scientific and technical quality, development tendencies, and patentability, novelty and competitiveness of the IP generated at the Institute. The RFNC-VNIIEF patent engineers specializing in different disciplines of science and technology, they assist the IP authors with patent applications for inventions, utility models or designs, and copyright applications for trademarks, software and databases.

Each year the Institute has about 140 applications filed for industrial property, and obtains over 100 patents on the pre-filed applications. In 2005, for instance, the copyright was obtained for several databases and software products.

The Institute is involved with licensing activity and so carries out any kind of work to make up and process the agreements for assignment or transfer of the RFNC-VNIIEF rights.

All the IP protection-related studies are supported by patents and scientific-technical information. There is at the Institute an extensive collection of patent literature. It contains the domestic patents as they have been since 1924 and the foreign patent file since the mid-fifties. This library employs new information technologies, including CD-ROM and DVD-ROM databases and Internet access capabilities.

The translators and interpreters provide on-line translation of scientific and technical information from West-European languages into Russian and vice versa.

The managing staff and personnel of the Institute are provided with competent and sufficient sci-tech information support to make managerial decisions or conduct research and development projects.

Currently, the Institute has lots of opportunities for access to foreign and national scientific and technical data resources at the major publishers or sci-tech information centers. This data is useful at every stage while developing and commercializing the RFNC-VNIIEF intellectual property.

The RFNC-VNIIEF management and personnel can get regular scientific, technological and political updates from the relevant commercial databases of ITAR-TASS, VINITI, and TSNIIATOMINFORM organizations.