Under conditions of sanctions pressure, due to the withdrawal of certain foreign companies from the Russian market and the lack of supplies of imported equipment and components, special attention is paid to import substitution.
In this regard, in the spring of 2022, Rospatent initiated the work of the Center for Promotion of Advanced Technologies, the main task of which is “coordination of knowledge-intensive projects, including those aimed at replacing foreign products and technologies.” To implement this project, a scientific and technical approach such as reverse engineering is used. The purpose of using reengineering as a tool for studying a technical object is to obtain all the technical information about it, the principles of its operation, production methods, carrying out the necessary measurements and analyzing the results obtained, etc.
Reverse engineering of foreign equipment available in production is used both to create their analogues and to maintain their production base if manufacturers or suppliers of equipment and components refuse to provide technical support. In this case, reverse engineering of equipment in order to restore design documentation and create in-house production of spare parts for it is not only necessary, but also legal.
However, if in the above cases reverse engineering is legal, then the manufacture, use, and sale of a newly created such object is a violation of the patent rights of third parties if they have valid Russian or Eurasian patents. The risk of violating someone’s rights is identified at the stage of examining a piece of technology for patent purity.
It is also necessary to remember that the goal of reverse engineering is not the production and use of foreign technical objects, but the use of information about them obtained through reengineering to achieve one’s own research goals, on the basis of which domestic protectable innovative technical solutions can be developed.
It should be noted that reverse engineering can be used not only to study foreign technical objects, but also for domestic ones. In this case, reengineering may make it possible to more accurately select a legal protection regime for them, as well as evaluate the technical developments of competitors in the event of violations on their part.
In conclusion, I would like to note that reengineering must be carried out jointly with the involvement of patent attorneys and lawyers in order to avoid conflicts of interest between manufacturers, suppliers and competitors.
