It is an open secret that weapons made in Russia are selling well. Ever since Soviet times, both science and industry have been working for the military. Any new technology will always be assessed for its military application. No wonder that Russia manufactures plenty of high-tech weapons that are in great demand. Russia is the world’s number two in terms of arms exports (after the United States, but way ahead of China, France and Germany). Still, Russia’s Ministry of Defense sometimes struggles to close a deal, not because of the quality or technical specification of a weapons system, but the associated documents. We are not talking about a lack of manuals or technical documentation, but customers at times expect quite a bit more background information.

Take the sale of Russian Su-35 fighters to China, which was delayed by almost two years because the Chinese Defense Ministry wanted to know who invented the cutting-edge technologies powering these jets. The sale of the S-400 "Triumph", an anti-aircraft weapons system, was delayed by a year for the same reason. The Chinese were ready to pay, but wanted to make sure the technology was patented; as it turned out, the intellectual property had not been registered. For the buyer, it can be quite risky to use such expensive and complex devices and systems without any proper IP documentation, because a third party could claim that deploying this equipment is illegal if the manufacturer doesn’t own the patents for the technologies and inventions used in the weapons system.

The same problem hampered the deal between Moscow and the Indian government in Delhi to agree production of a fifth generation fighter aircraft. The blue prints, specifications and models for the aircraft were all there – but none of it had any patent protection. Delhi wanted to see evidence that all the technology had indeed been developed by Russian engineers and was protected by corresponding patents. Russian arms manufacturers quickly had to sit down with patent attorneys and file plenty of patent applications. As a result, the deal was delayed by a year and a half.

The Russian government finally seems determined to tackle the problem, and wants to amend a whole raft of laws to make it happen. For starters, the Ministry of Defense has finally designated a person to take responsibility for its intellectual property issues, and it is none other than the Chief of Defense, Valery Gerasimov. The ministry actually already had a Patent Department for several years, and we even know that an officer called Colonel Oleg Vorobyev was in charge. Sadly, it is difficult to find out what exactly he was in charge of, because no-one answers his department’s phones, and the web page of the Department is pretty much void of information. It’s still too early to say whether the ministry’s approach to intellectual property protection will truly change, but one thing is clear: Russia’s military wants to earn money not just by selling weapons anymore, it also realizes that it has to have patents to monetize its technologies and inventions. For now, however, this might remain an ambition, because Russia has only a few IP specialists that know how to register and monetize intellectual property rights on the global stage. And by all accounts these IP lawyers are not very eager to work for the military, because the Defense Ministry has a reputation for being rather cumbersome and putting too many restrictions on all its documentation.