Distribution of Rights to Research and Development (R&D) Deliverables as Intellectual Achievements

The article analyzes the problems of legal regulation of the distribution of results under the contract for the performance of research and development (R&D) as the sphere of intellectual property between the parties to the transaction. The topic of the article is in the sphere of research of civil and business law. The article presents the positions of scientists and trends of Russian court practice regarding the intellectual nature of R&D results, variability of the subject composition of the R&D contract, the risk of achievement or non-achievement of results under the R&D contract, peculiarities of legislative (imperative) and contractual (dispositive) settlement of conditions in the R&D transaction. Proper selection by the parties of the terms and conditions in the R&D contract with regard to the creation of results of intellectual activity (RIA) and determination of the ownership of rights to them between the parties to the transaction gives stability to the civil turnover. As a general rule, the emergence of rights to RIA as to the results of R&D results in their transfer from the contractor to the customer by virtue of the law, which can be changed by the parties to the transaction.