United Wagon Company becomes prize-winner of the International Innovation & IP Forum and Awards

Research and production corporation “United Wagon Company” (“UWC” or “Holding”) has been recognized as Best IP Department in Russia & Central and Eastern Europe 2018 at the Innovation & IP Forum and Awards, which took place in Paris. The Russian delegation was able to participate in the event due to the support of Gorodissky & Partners, the biggest Russian law firm specializing in intellectual property which has been a partner of UWC since 2016.

United Wagon Company demonstrated the main results and achievements of its patent-information department, also disclosing some aspects of its approach to patenting engineering solutions starting from the initial product idea to patent acquisition.

In its business activity, UWC places a special emphasis on comprehensive protection of intellectual property – the Company’s key innovations, technologies and products. Thus, hand in hand with All-Union Research and Development Centre for Transportation Technology (part of UWC), the railway holding has created an effective system to support product development. This approach helps to quickly resolve any arising issue, including the ones concerning the patenting of new developments, which generally increases the company’s IP efficiency.

By patenting technical solutions in key business areas, United Wagon Company has formed a portfolio of 480 patents, over 100 of them having been acquired abroad. This let the Company become a leader among Russian car-building enterprises, including the sphere of IP protection. The Company’s patent portfolio is larger than the portfolios of other domestic market players, and the Company plans to make sure the portfolio content reaches the level of biggest international manufacturers, such as Amsted Rail and Wabtec Corp.

Liudmila Pakhomova, Deputy CEO, Chief Legal Officer at UWC, says: “The policy of our Company’s IP management is crucial for our further development. One of our main goals is maintaining know-how confidentiality and the status of a leading manufacturer. Furthermore, our proprietary technologies have forced our competitors to change the design of their products on a regular basis, investing extra time and finances as well as pushing back their launch on the market. We highly appreciate the acknowledgement of international experts who preferred UWC over such deserving candidates as Gazprom, ŠKODA AUTO and SLOVNAFT, recognizing our patent-information department as the best in Russia and Eastern Europe.”

Yury Kuznetsov, Head of Patent Practice at the law firm Gorodissky & Partners, was one of the first to congratulate the Holding’s representatives: “The patent service arrangement and level in UWC are exemplary for other Russian businesses; we are proud to work with one of the leading innovative companies in Russia and congratulate it on this much-deserved success.”

The Innovation & IP Forum and Awards is organized by the Leaders League rating agency as a specialized international patent and IP protection forum. It is one of the biggest business events bringing together more than 400 world experts. In this year, the forum was visited by representatives of world-renowned companies, such as IBM, Ericsson, AB InBev, Airbus, Nestlé, Tata Group, Time Inc, Nokia, Dassault, Qualcomm, Airbus, Lindt, Orange, Skoda, Sanofi, AT&T, H&M as well as the World Intellectual Property Organization.