Patent protection of technical developments in athlete training: conditions of lawful use (exemplified by hypoxic training)

The purpose of the study is to establish under what conditions technical developments used in the training process and protected by patents for devices and methods can be lawfully used by sports organizations, coaches, and athletes. Research methods and organization. Formal legal and comparative legal methods were applied; the material comprised 15 patent documents (seven Russian, five American, and three European), provisions of Russian and foreign law, the practice of Rospatent, the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office, and the Court of Justice of the European Union; hypoxic training for high-altitude ascents was chosen as an example, in which the device and the method are protected separately. Research results and conclusions. Training developments are protected by patents of two types – for a device and for a method; key foreign patents did not have effect in Russia due to territoriality; a patent cannot be opposed to an athlete using the development for personal needs: a patent for a device acts against manufacturers, importers, and sellers, while a patent for a method also acts against organizations and coaches providing paid training services; rights to a method created under a state contract are distributed according to Article 1373 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The narrowness of patent protection for training developments encourages right holders to adopt a trade secret regime and leaves undisclosed results created with budget funds; the solution lies in the conditions of exercising the right – clarifying the exception for personal use and joint ownership of rights under state contracts.