On October 14, 2013, at a meeting of the Russian Commission for Military-Technological Cooperation with Foreign States, the Russian President Vladimir Putin called for increased protection for Russian weapons manufacturers’ intellectual property rights.
“The world arms market is rife with examples of illegal copying of others’ designs, and we have encountered these problems on past occasions. Our task is to ensure a high level of protection for our science-intensive goods and intellectual property, and defend the rights of Russian producers, companies and inventions’ creators,” the President said.
“We must improve the intellectual property rights protection for Russian arms produced abroad in line with today’s international legal standards. This concerns not only the goods manufactured on the basis of contracts signed during the Soviet period, a case that particularly concerns Eastern Europe. This is an area where we still have problems to resolve, but I am talking also about legal protection of our latest arms models,” Putin said.
Experts estimate that exports of illegally produced Russian arms cost the country up to $6 billion a year and also damage Russia’s image.
Source: Official webpage of the President of Russia
http://eng.state.kremlin.ru/commission/1/news/6117
