Until 2011, there was no law on the protection of architects' copyright in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, but even after it was adopted, it was very difficult for Russian designers to defend their authorship, since in case of litigation specialists from the construction industry were involved as experts. A new board is called upon to radically change this practice.
As the vice-president of the Union of Architects of Russia Sergey Gnedovsky told Archi.ru, the collegium included five experts from Moscow, Novorossiysk, Tyumen and Rostov-on-Don - at the end of last year, all of them were trained, having mastered the method of conducting a forensic examination, and were accredited by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, having received certificates confirming their competence in the field of copyright protection. The next step was that the Supreme Arbitration Court notified the courts of first instance that all "architectural" cases can now and should be considered with the involvement of the panel's experts. For the professional community, this means that now, in the event of litigation, the plaintiffs will be able to rely on the opinion of an expert-architect who is comprehensively familiar with the specifics of the project activity. By the way, according to Sergei Gnedovsky, accredited experts have already been involved in one of the ongoing trials. And since Russian architects apply to the trade union and the Russian Authors' Society at least 3-4 times a month on issues of copyright protection, it is clear that experts will not be left without work in the near future.
As our interlocutor emphasized, the composition of the collegium will expand - it is planned that within the next year at least 10 more experts will receive accreditation from the Ministry of Justice in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and at least 2-3 experts in each subject of the federation will work in other regions of the country. “The collegium created by the Union is open for cooperation, and we publicly call our experienced colleagues to become forensic experts on copyright protection, but we understand that this recruitment will not be very fast,” admits Sergei Gnedovsky. “First of all, this role requires experienced architects and, as a result, not very young, as well as those with sufficient will and courage to represent the interests of the professional community in court.”
A. M.
