Licensee’s liability for illegal use of an intellectual property object

Introduction. The license agreement assumes the use of the object of intellectual rights strictly within the limits determined by the agreement of the parties. The licensee's going beyond these limits affects both the contractual sphere and the exclusive right of the licensor, which raises the question of qualifying such a violation as contractual or tort. The practical significance of this problem is due to differences in the grounds, conditions and methods of civil protection, in particular, the possibility of collecting compensation for violation of an exclusive right.

The purpose of this work is to determine the legal nature of the licensee’s liability for using an intellectual property object beyond the limits established by the license agreement.

Methods. The study employs the formal legal method to analyze the relevant provisions of the Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, judicial decisions, and doctrinal positions developed in civil law theory.

Results and Discussion. The existing doctrinal positions are generally limited to stating that the licensee’s use of an intellectual property object beyond the licensed scope constitutes non-contractual use and entails tort liability. This doctrinal state of affairs cannot be regarded as fully satisfactory because such qualification is rarely substantiated, while the dispositive character of the statutory model of liability – allowing the parties to modify the default rules – and the practical consequences of contractual deviations from the general rule remain largely unexplored.

Based on a systematic interpretation of the Civil Code (in particular, Articles 1235, 1237(3), and 1252), judicial practice and doctrinal reasoning, the study substantiates the qualification of any form of excess of the license (including exceeding the temporal, territorial or other limits) as noncontractual use. The general rule for liability in such cases is the application of the specific remedies provided for in Articles 1252, 1252.1, which include damages or compensation for the infringement of exclusive rights. The license agreement may include special rules regarding liability, such as the use of contractual remedies in addition to or instead of tort remedies, the introduction of specific consequences for infringement allowed by law, or the contractual limitation of liability provided it does not conflict with statutory requirements.

Conclusions. The model of liability set out in Article 1237(3) of the Civil Code prescribes, as a general rule, the application of tort liability to the licensee for non-contractual use of an intellectual property object. At the same time, contractual regulation of such liability is permissible. Regardless of whether contractual or tort remedies are applied, the underlying basis of the claim remains the infringement of the licensor’s exclusive right, which is a tort.

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