The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019 started on June 06. Traditionally, the participants of the main business event of the year will discuss ways to develop the Russian and world economy.

“Technologies shaping the future”, one of the thematic clusters, is devoted to the problems of digitalization, development of artificial intelligence, new technologies for industry, healthcare, and cybersecurity.

Transformation of business processes and creation of a new technological structure are impossible without introducing innovations. Does Russia take out enough patents for inventions and technologies that can bring the future closer?

The number of patents in Russia is growing

In 2018, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) received 38 thousand patent applications for inventions that was by 4% more than in 2017. The increase in the number of applications indicates the keeping up patent activity, as well as the existence of intellectual potential and favorable environment for scientific developments. In 2018, there were 256 thousand valid patents for inventions in Russia that is 2,4 times more than in 2004, when this statistics began to be published (see Picture 1).

Picture 1. Dynamics of the number of valid patents for inventions and applications for new patents for inventions; 2004-2018; Russia

Patenting in Russia

Medical and measuring technologies, civil engineering, transport, pharmaceuticals, work with new materials, and developments in the energy sector are most attractive for the Russian inventors (see Picture 2).

Picture 2. The structure of applications for patents for inventions by fields; 2018; Russia

The Russian engineers and scientists create unique technologies that can increase the competitiveness of the economy: harmonic scalpel (Lomonosov Moscow State University), artificial heart muscle (National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET)), device for searching underwater objects under the ice (The Krylov State Research Centre), open space microrobot (Ishlinsky Institute for Problems in Mechanics RAS). These and many other inventions in the field of information technology, engineering and robotics are included in the Top-100 best inventions of 2018 according to Rospatent.

Patenting in the world

The leading direction of the global technological development are computing technologies and energy equipment engineering. These areas accumulate more than 16% of all new patent applications in the world (see Picture 3). To limit the use of promising technologies by other companies, corporate giants create large patent packages. For example, the Chinese company Huawei, leading in production of equipment for networks of the fifth generation 5G, owns about 90 thousand patents, including 2,5 thousands for 5G standard.

There is a huge demand for the development of self-learning machines with artificial intelligence, using neural networks and computer vision, due to which fundamentally new production technologies are created.

Picture 3. The structure of applications for patents for inventions by fields; 2017; all countries

Russia is in the Top-10 countries by the number of patents and applications for inventions

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), more than 7 million inventions are registered in the USA, China and Japan that is 52% of all valid patents in the world. Russia's share is just 1,8%, but it allowed the country to ranked 9th in the Top-10 (see Table 1).

By the number of new applications for registration of inventions, Russia is ranked 7th. The leading China is far ahead of its closest competitors, including the United States: almost half of global applications for registration of inventions filed in the Middle Kingdom.

Table 1. Top-10 countries by the number of valid patents and applications for registration of inventions; 2017

Shaping the future

Rich scientific traditions and intellectual potential provide Russia with a position in the Top-10 world centers by the number of patents for inventions. However, according to Rosstat for 2018, only about 6% of the total number of patented inventions has been introduced.
Insufficient protection of intellectual property rights, limited financing of scientific and technical developments, lack of worthy remuneration of inventors, lack of interest of organizations in the development of the intellectual property system are problems that require speedy solutions. Having overcome them, we can rightly say that Russia has technologies shaping the future, inventors to create and entrepreneurs ready to introduce them.

On July 1, 2019, the Federal Law №71-FZ of 01.05.2019, with amendments that improve the contract system of public procurement, enters into force.

The amendments prescribe the following:

• procurement planning by only time-schedules, excluding procurement plans;
• maintaining a register of procurement participants by operators of electronic trading platforms;
• reduction from 10 to 1 day of the obligatory period between making changes to a time-schedule and placing notices of procurement;
• increase up to 300 million rubles of initial or maximum prices of contracts, admitting a possibility of conducting of electronic auctions with a shorter bidding period and, up to 2 billion rubles - during construction, reconstruction, major repairs, demolition of construction projects;
• banning on advance payments by conclusion of contracts with procurement participants who have offered a contract price, being lower by 25% or more from the initial or maximum one;
• provision of documents that substantiate compliance with additional requirements for procurement participants accredited at e-trading platforms;
• right to conclude a contract with procurement participants, who have been assigned the second number following the results of competitive procurement, in cases of termination of contracts with the winners of such procurement;
• right to make procurement for one unit of goods, works or services, regardless of the objects of procurement, if it is not possible to determine the volume of goods, works or services at the time of purchase;
• possible change in the material terms of contracts for the construction, reconstruction, major repairs and demolition of construction projects, for works on the preservation of cultural heritage objects in the event of emergency. In particular, an increase in the price up to 10% and a one-time extension of the terms of execution of contracts without an increase in their price in case of payment of the relevant penalties by contractors, in the event of their fault;
• eliminating the need for contractors to post reports on individual stages of the execution of contracts for construction works or for the preservation of cultural heritage objects, as well as in cases where the contract price is more than 1 billion rubles.

Information on all contacts and procurement, including archival one, is available in full for subscribers of the Information and Analytical system Globas.