ABSTRACT
The U.S.S.R. law on inventions of May 31, 1991, introduced a commodity approach in scientific technical activities before the collapse of the Soviet Union. This paper will not discuss the content of industrial property protection (e.g., patents), but will focus on the relations between the legislative levels of the former republics-independent states and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The evolution of industrial property protection can be seen as a test of the assumption that the disintegration of the Soviet federation was well prepared and that the disintegration of the post-Stalinist central organizations was a conditio sine qua non for the building of new, market-based relations.
