MOSCOW, November 13 - RAPSI, Sergei Feklyunin. The Supreme Commercial Court's presidium has upheld the decision of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) to terminate a license contract under which Alcoa Samara Metallurgical Plant used its patented alloy, the court spokesperson told RAPSI on Tuesday.
The presidium has dismissed the company's appeal against the lower instance court's ruling.
The Alcoa Samara Metallurgical Plant is a subsidiary of the U.S. Alcoa company.
Pursuant to the court materials, VIAM and the Siberian Aluminum holding entered into a license contract in 2001. Under the contract, the institute assigned the company the rights to use a high-tensile alloy based on aluminum used in aircraft building and engineering. Based on the contract, the Samara Metallurgical Plant, which was formerly a Siberian Aluminum subsidiary, also received the rights to use the patented alloy.
Subsequently, the plant left the holding. In December 2011, the institute, Siberian Aluminum, and the Samara Metallurgical Plant signed an amendment to the license agreement, pursuant to which they decided to consider the Samara Metallurgical Plant a party to the contract with all of the rights and the obligations belonging to the holding, and its exclusive legal successor.
However, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks terminated the license contract based on the institute's application. The Alcoa Samara Metallurgical Plant then submitted to the Moscow Commercial Court a lawsuit to invalidate the institute's transaction.
The first two court instances satisfied the lawsuit. Later, the Moscow Regional Federal Commercial Court dismissed the ruling after having considered the plaintiff's appeal. The cassation instance examined the holding's division balance sheet and determined that specific data was lacking in terms of the assignment to the holding of the exclusive rights to the plant under the contract in dispute.
The Supreme Commercial Court has upheld the rulings.
