The World Trade Organization Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Council) met again from 10 to 11 March 2021.

The central issue of the session was consideration of measures taken by the WTO member states in the area of intellectual property aimed at stimulating innovation, simplifying the procedures for granting intellectual property protection in order to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Russian side presented its approaches to combating the pandemic. In particular, the Council noted the digitalization of the Russian patent system, which had helped to speed up the processing of applications and the granting of IP protection. The main strategic goal of the Russian system was to ensure access to vaccines at the earliest stages.

Russia provides protection of 12 patents for coronavirus vaccines, 7 of which were issued by Rospatent at the request of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after N.F. Gamaleya for the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine “Sputnik V”.

The participants noted the commitment to open and comprehensive cooperation among the members of the organization, which will contribute to the early emergence of the world community on the trajectory of “pre-COVID” development.

The Russian Federation was ready to cooperate with WTO members on the exchange of experience and ideas to combat the pandemic.