Domain Disputes: Difficult Search For The Competent Court

Violations of intellectual property rights on the Internet can be difficult to handle — and taking a violator to court over a domain name dispute has recently become more challenging in the Russian Federation. Cases that involve a natural person who is not registered as an individual entrepreneur can be particularly problematic, while certainty surrounding the competent court is being re-established after an unexpected change in case law.

Cases involving natural persons are usually subject to Common Courts¹, while Commercial Courts specialize in economical disputes usually involving legal persons or individual entrepreneurs, including disputes with an economical character that emerge from relationships between citizens.² Therefore, in some cases, a natural person who is not registered as an individual entrepreneur (and consequently not obviously involved in economical activities) can be taken to a Commercial Court when the economical character of the case allows it.