Copyright Protection of Websites

Natalia Gulyaeva, Office Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells (CIS), Russia

Russian Civil Code does not explicitly recognize websites as objects of copyright. This does not mean that websites are not protected by copyright, but implies the following questions instead: What kind of Intellectual Property are websites? What scope of legal protection they deserve? Are websites protected as a whole or protection covers its parts separately? Some of those questions have recently been clarified by the Russian Supreme Court, which overturned the decisions of lower courts, having disagreed with their refusal to grant claims for prohibiting commercial use of a website with the HTML code similar to one of the plaintiff`s website. The case was remanded for retrial, since the lower courts have not considered HTML code as an independent subject matter of copyright protection and have not ordered court expert examination to resolve this issue, while such examination was necessary given that courts lack the relevant technical knowledge.

Natalia Gulyaeva has a wealth of experience working with clients in the high tech, pharma and biotechnology fields. Her diverse practice encompasses portfolio management, dispute resolution, and transactional work. Natalia is well-known for a chain of victories in IP disputes before the Russian courts. She is equally creative and successful in handling complex disputes between international and domestic corporations in Russia and other CIS countries, and for coordinating multi-jurisdictional dispute resolution (including litigation and arbitration). Qualified in both Russian and English law, Natalia coordinates multi-jurisdictional dispute resolution matters. Natalia is a Chair of the ICC Russia Task Force on Psychological Issues in International Arbitration. Natalia is included into the lists of arbitrators of various arbitration institutions including WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), ICC, Russian Arbitration Center. Natalia is a member of the WIPO Mediation and Arbitration Advisory Committee 2021-2024. Natalia is a ?hair of the Russian Chapter of the CIArb European Branch and an approved faculty member of CIArb. Natalia is widely published, and is a regular speaker at high-profile conferences including MIP, ABA, IAPP and INTA. Natalia’s team has received several international awards for their work in IP litigation and transactional matters in Russia/CIS. Hogan Lovells Moscow team, led by Natalia Gulyaeva, has been shortlisted in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards in the category Practice of law: moving the market forward - ’Guiding Netflix to complete its first-ever Russian localization’.

Hogan Lovells is a large multinational law firm that provides legal advisory services in the areas of government regulation, litigation and arbitration, corporate finance, and intellectual property. The company caters to the energy, power, utilities, real estate, engineering and construction, financial, insurance, life sciences, media and telecommunications, and consumer products sectors. Hogan Lovells has around 2,800 lawyers working out of more than 45 offices in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.