MCD Technologies

History

2025

Transfer of patents for carbon nanotubes to Russia

In mid-October 2025, the Intellectual Property Court handed over to Russia patents of the European company MCD Technologies S.A.R.L. related to carbon nanotubes. The decision was made at the suit of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

According to TASS, MCD Technologies owned a patent for the method of synthesis of carbon nanotubes, which is implemented by the Oxial company (OCSiAl), as well as the Oxial trademark. This company was founded in 2010 in Novosibirsk by physicist Mikhail Predtechensky and businessmen Yuri Koropachinsky, Oleg Kirillov and Yuri Zelvensky. OCSiAl is the world's largest producer of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Their introduction allows you to improve the properties of the material or give it new characteristics. In 2022, the company accounted for about 90% of the global market for related products. OCSiAl is headquartered in Luxembourg as of 2025.

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Фото: Freepik

The Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation sent a lawsuit to the intellectual property rights court against MCD Technologies in October 2024. The Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Thermophysics named after S. S. Kutateladze of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Mikhail Predtechensky, Rusnano, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, etc. Dmitry Tarasov, Deputy General Director, Member of the Board of the Rusnano Group, previously stated that due to the withdrawal of Oxial's production assets and intellectual property abroad, Russia lost a unique product. Shareholders of the company, according to Tarasov, "carefully avoid communication with Russia, trying to restart production abroad at Russian mental and material and technical bases."

As a result, having considered the plaintiffs' arguments, the intellectual property rights court invalidated the indication of MCD Technologies by the patent holder of the inventions in question. In accordance with the decree, the only patent holder is the Russian Federation.^[1]

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit demanding to turn assets into state income

In January 2025, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court of the Tambov Region against MCD Technologies, a company registered in Luxembourg. According to the judicial file cabinet, the prosecutor's office also proposes to bring an intellectual property court. The reasons for the claims were not disclosed, but, according to RBC, in such cases they often require the assets of companies to be turned into state revenue due to violations in the privatization process of the 1990s. MCD Technologies is the global leader in the production of graphene nanotubes.^[2]

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