MOSCOW, October 14 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) will act independently as major reforms to the country's justice system underway, Pavel Krasheninnikov, chair of the State Duma Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitral and Procedural Legislation, said Monday.

“We have the Intellectual Property Court which is already working. It [the IP Court] will be removed from the commercial court system as both supreme courts [Russia's Supreme Court and Supreme Commercial Court] merge,” Krasheninnikov said at the State Duma session.

IP Court was established by presidential order on December 8, 2011. Then President Dmitry Medvedev signed a federal law amending laws on Russia’s judicial system and on commercial courts in view of the establishment of the Intellectual Property Court. The law set out the IP Court’s place in the Russian commercial court system.

The merger of the Supreme Commercial Court with the Supreme Court was voiced by President Vladimir Putin last June. The draft law on the merger was submitted to the Parliament on October 7. It is expected to be adopted by both houses by the end of this year.

The draft law on the merger proposes that  the Supreme Commercial Court should be dissolved within six months after the Constitution is amended.