Changes in the legislation in the scientiic and technical realm in 2017

The monitoring is devoted to the main changes in the Russian legislation in the realm of science and innovations that have occurred between January and December 2017. The changes are conditionally divided into the following areas: scientific and technical policy and organization of science, intellectual property and technology transfer, integration of science and education, digital economy. Detailed regulation of the scientific and technical realm has been mainly carried out at a subordinate level: in the acts of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, Ministries and Agencies. The adoption of the program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" should be considered as the significant event that influences the development of the national innovation system in general. The peculiarity of digital technologies is their cross-cutting nature – these technologies have become a technological part and parcel in technological and business processes. The program provides for the need for a comprehensive legislative regulation of the relations arising in connection with the development of the digital economy. Not least important event in the scientific and technical realm has been the adoption of the Federal Law "On Innovative Scientific and Technological Centers and on Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation". The federal law regulates the relations connected with the creation of innovative scientific and technological centers and ensuring their functioning in order to implement the priorities of the scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, increase the investment attractiveness in the field of research and development, commercialize their results, enhance the access of citizens and legal entities to participate in promising, commercially attractive scientific and technical projects. In the field of intellectual property and technology transfer the changes concerned the Regulations on Patent and Other Fees (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 23, 2017 N 1151). Regulations on patent fees are brought in line with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The amendments to the Regulations on Patent Fees envisage the introduction of new types of duties, the increase of the nominal amount of individual duties in connection with inflationary processes, the expansion of the applicants' categories who are granted a privilege for the payment of duties and the types of such benefits.