On 19–20 March 2026, the Rostelecom Group Legal Forum took place. The event featured the following members of the Stonebridge Legal team: CEO and Corporate Partner Dmitry Pozin; Dispute Resolution Counsel Anastasia Sivitskaya; and Corporate Associate Fedor Lukyanov.
Anastasia Sivitskaya spoke in two sessions. In the first, which was dedicated to artificial intelligence, she explored the key question of who owns the rights to intellectual property created with the assistance of AI? Anastasia discussed existing approaches to determining the author and rights holder of such works, emphasising the particular role of end-user licence agreements. She provided examples from the practice of patent offices in various countries, highlighted notable court decisions in the US, Australia and China, and reviewed Russian court practice. Anastasia noted that in most jurisdictions a creative contribution to works produced with the assistance of AI remains a necessary condition for being recognised as the author.
In her second session, Anastasia Sivitskaya used the Scythian Gold case to illustrate the specific challenges of litigating before a foreign court in the context of a political conflict. She shared her experience of representing the interests of Crimean museums before the Amsterdam District Court, addressing issues such as choice of jurisdiction despite a prorogation agreement, difficulties in building a legal position under Ukrainian law, and the shortcomings of international law in protecting museum rights. Anastasia also spoke about the specifics of presenting arguments and examining witnesses in the Amsterdam District Court, and explained how it was proved that items from three of the four museums did not belong to Ukraine.
Dmitry Pozin and Fedor Lukyanov delivered a session entitled Recent Practice in Extraordinary Transactions. They analysed the criteria for major transactions in detail, focusing on recent rulings of the Judicial Chamber for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued between July and September 2024. They also examined approaches to the qualitative criterion (falling outside the scope of ordinary business activities) and its relationship with the quantitative threshold of 25% of the book value of assets. The lawyers also covered the specifics of interim extraordinary transactions, the characteristics of interrelated agreements, and the approval procedure for extraordinary transactions. Considerable attention was given to challenging such transactions, i.e., regarding who is entitled to challenge them, how the one-year limitation period is calculated, and the criteria for establishing a counterparty’s actual knowledge.
The Stonebridge Legal experts emphasised that disclosure of information, participation in general meetings, and corporate affiliations directly affect judicial protection. The session concluded with practical recommendations for preventing conflicts of interest and asset stripping.
Stonebridge Legal thanks Rostelecom for the invitation and for the opportunity to be part of this professional event.