MOSCOW, December 12 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) has upheld a ruling of a lower court recovering 397 million rubles (about $6 million) from M-Factor company in favor of the Russian Union of Right Holders, the court ruling reads.

The defendant challenged the December 2017 ruling of the Moscow Regional Court and the August 21 ruling of a court of appeals. The courts noted that the union was authorized in September 2010 to collect and distribute remuneration for the writers, performers and soundtrack producers and audiovisual products for free reproduction of soundtracks and audiovisual products for private purposes within the territory of the Russian Federation. This also means that producers and importers of copy equipment, including audio and video storage devices, must pay the union 1% of the product’s value.

The union stated that the defendant failed to pay the required compensation for free reproduction of audiovisual products for his own personal use. According to the information obtained by the Federal Customs Service, the plaintiff also found that M-Factor violated the rules.

The defendant, in turn, argued that the plaintiff failed to provide original customs documents listing content and characteristics of the imported equipment. Also, during reviews of the case in the first case the documents were located in the Tenth Commercial Court of Appeals for another hearing, constituting a violation. In addition, court of appeals failed to hear testimony of an expert on behalf of the defendant.