Preliminary Injunctions In Software Infringement Actions – What Is New In Court Procedures?

Preliminary injunction (PI) is an urgent and interim court order aimed at securing plaintiff's claims and interests.

When seeking a preliminary injunction, the plaintiff may ask that the infringer stop committing a certain act. Preliminary injunctions that can be sought in software disputes include:

• temporarily blocking certain pages on the website or mobile application;
• banning the distribution of information or the provision of services; and
• updating software products.

Granting a preliminary injunction in software infringement cases is not common practice unless there is a clear-cut antipiracy case (which would qualify for the simplified procedure by the Moscow City Court). This is because software disputes usually concern technical questions, and the judges cannot easily estimate infringement of computer programs without a special examination of the source code.