The decision of the Intellectual Rights Court of September 14, 2023 No. C01-992/2022 in case No. A41-15615/2021 has not changed the judicial acts in the case of protection of exclusive rights to the content of a website.

As established by the lower courts and not disputed by the defendants, the exclusive rights to the website’s content belong to the plaintiff due to the transfer of exclusive rights to the website to him under the website development agreement, as well as by virtue of filling the website with content by the plaintiff’s employees, while the defendant did not provide relevant and admissible evidence, which would refute the facts contained in the expert opinion presented by the plaintiff.

According to the Judicial Collegium for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated September 13, 2016 in case No. A40-26249/2015, the objects of copyright include composite works that, by the selection or arrangement of materials, are the result of creative work. Such composite works include website content. An Internet user perceives a website through the perception of its content. The website has no other objective expression. Considering the above, the concept of “website” is identical to the concept of “website content”. Under these circumstances, the defendants’ argument that the selection and arrangement of website materials does not constitute website content contradicts the above provisions of the law and the clarifications of the Supreme Court.

Thus, the subject matter of the applicant's exclusive right in relation to the present case is the website itself, namely the combination of specially selected and arranged materials and computer code (website content).