Russia to allow patenting of game skins and character designs starting January 2027

Russia will introduce new rules for protecting digital assets in video games. This may significantly change the rules of the game for the use of assets by game studios in the country. The new rules say that from January 2027, it will be possible to patent the skins of game characters and virtual clothes.

Rospatent shifts game asset protection from copyright to industrial patents

This will make it easier to defend against counterfeiting and will make it easier to earn money from the sale of game items. For studios whose main asset is the appearance of the game, this means the need to reconsider the approach to intellectual property.

The initiative was announced by Rospatent – the federal service for intellectual property of Russia. Earlier, developers could protect the rights to game assets with automatic copyright or by paying for registration as a trademark for certain classes. Now developers can patent hypergraphic UI and VR clothing.

This is the creation of a new class – digital fashion, skins of game characters. This means that the focus is shifting from copyright to industrial property.

According to key participant Yury Zubov, the main idea is to facilitate and increase the reliability of earnings from these assets. In January of the next year, the law will enter into force. This is a specific deadline.

The essence of the patent system is to have better grounds in court in case someone decides to use game assets illegally. The availability of such tools will facilitate licensing and sales on various platforms with virtual products.

According to the opinion of industry leaders, the main recipients of these benefits are expected to be medium and large game studios. And not independent developers. Because only large companies have sufficient resources for patenting and related expenses.

This approach is a consequence of the paradigm shift in the perception of digital assets as a valuable industrial property, and not just as creative activity. When the law comes into effect, game studios will have to think about which of their assets are worth patenting to get the maximum benefit.

Source: IXBT