The news came from a video released by the Russian government's press office, showing the country's prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, virtually addressing members of a committee he has convened called the Government Commission on the Sustainable Development of the Russian Economy Amid the Sanctions. Formerly the head of the country's Federal Tax Service, Mishustin was appointed by Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, to take Dmitry Medvedev's place running the country's government in 2020.
"The purpose of this law is to satisfy demand for goods," Mishustin said, pointing to a new law covering "parallel imports" that he was signing before members of the committee. The law comes in response to announcements from brands like H&M Group, Apple and Nike this month that they would temporarily stop sales in their stores in Russia, in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine.
In his address, Mishustin said the companies' presence in the country would no longer be needed to continue the sales of their goods there.
"Until now, those goods could not be sold in our country without the permission of trademark holders," Mishustin said. "This will allow imports into our country, despite the unfriendly actions of some foreign politicians."
A list of which products will now be allowed into the country, regardless of trademark protections, will be issued from Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade.
"In the past, if you wanted to sell Nike shoes into Russia, you couldn't do it unless you had Nike's permission," said trademark attorney Josh Gerben of the Gerben Law Firm, who has been following the rapid changes in trademark law in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine last month.
"What this 'parallel imports' order said is that now you no longer need permission of the brand or the patent owner to import those products," Gerben said.
In a different decree earlier this month, Russia announced that it would allow unpaid and unapproved use of patents from "unfriendly countries" as well.
The latest law would now allow the legal importation of what Gerben calls "gray market" goods, which are not counterfeit, but are being sold outside the control of the companies that made them. Examples of these kinds of goods, he says, are products sold by resellers or liquidators, which are often sold online or in discount retail stores in the U.S., but often with restrictions that give brands the power to restrict those sales, if they choose.
Details have yet to emerge about the new law or how it would be enforced by Russia's Federal Customs Service, which monitors the trade in goods entering the country. Gerben said the implication of the law would be that Russia could become a gray market free-for-all.
"There's a lot of product that just circulates around the world, products that have been returned, products that have been liquidated because they didn't sell or are outdated in one way or another," Gerben said. "Maybe they have a new market in Russia."
--Additional reporting by Dani Kass. Editing by Peter Rozovsky.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
