General Director of Russian Authors’ Society to talk about crowdfunding and IP management in the digital age

18.02.2020

Alexander Sukhotin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Co-Fi crowdfunding platform, General Director at Russian Authors’ Society (RAO), will deliver lectures in two modules of the educational program of the Scientific and Educational National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP) – “Intellectual Property in the Digital Economy”.

In the module “Economics”, he will talk about new opportunities for attracting investments and commercializing intangible assets. Speaking about the content of this lecture, the expert noted that intellectual property can be used as a guarantee in obtaining funding. “When a copyright holder applies to a bank and tries to use his rights as security for a loan, usually there are a lot of nuances, since banks are extremely reluctant to accept this type of collateral. – I’ll talk about alternative models of monetization of a creative product associated with a new wave of crowdinvesting, crowdlanding and crowdfunding. In particular, about platforms that allow raising funds from the market – whether from professional investors or fans,” said Sukhotin.

He explained that crowdfunding, including on the security of intellectual property rights, is now especially popular in the creative environment. So, musicians sometimes offer fans to finance the recording of a new album, and as a guarantee they transfer the exclusive right to the previous one. “Students will learn how the crowdfunding market and, in particular, the Co-Fi platform work, what features and limitations it provides,” the expert added.

Also, Alexander Sukhotin will take part in the discussion on how the transition from collective management of rights to the individual takes place in modern digital realities. The meeting will be held as part of the “Society” module, together with Ekaterina Chukovskaya, PhD in Law, Director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Intellectual Property and the Digital Economy, the Vice President for R&D of the Intellectual Property Federation.

Explaining the relevance of the topic, Mr. Sukhotin emphasized, “earlier, rightholders had to apply to collective management societies for copyright and related rights, but now protected objects can be administered individually”. The expert will tell Digital IP students how rightholders can make money on intellectual property without intermediaries.

The program “Intellectual Property in the Digital Economy” presumes a flexible training schedule in four main areas of modern IP institution – creativity, technology, economics, and society. In the framework of educational modules, students will learn, in particular, about the origin and evolution of intellectual rights, legal safety procedures when creating and using intellectual property results and contacts with copyright holders, digital transactions, IP digital infrastructure in Russia and beyond, and much more.