App2Top.ru continues the annual series of materials “Results of the year”. In it, we interview top managers and experts of the gaming industry about how a year has passed for their business. Next up is an interview with Roman Lukyanov, managing partner of the Semenov & Pevzner law firm.
How did 2021 go for the company?
It’s a bad year when there was nothing to do or you completely closed down. 2021 is a good year. There was a lot of work, it was interesting.
This year, our team has repeatedly found itself in a situation that is meaningfully close to crunch. So we were forced to slightly increase our staffing capacity. As a result, we have transformed a lot this year. I mean both internal transformation, focused on the company’s employees, and external, focused on customers.
Well, a small spoiler: we have laid an excellent foundation for the setup of a new (third) office, so in 2022, most likely, there will be a full-fledged announcement with details.
What event or trend in 2021 is considered central within your niche?
The question is not in the eyebrow, but in the eye. According to my observations, we have several trends in the legal business:
- ever-growing staff hunger;
- dynamically changing regulatory landscape in the IT industry;
- the growing popularity of legal services in the field of IP / IT.
For us, probably, the trend of personnel starvation has changed internal processes the most. We are not a very big company and have always shunned internships, sincerely believing in the market and the opportunity to get a good specialist from outside. But the cruel reality pushed us to launch an internship program (in a very truncated form, we take very few people). And it turned out to be a very useful tool. For those interns who came to us, takes pride, they will give a head start to some Middle-am. And it’s very joyful.
In 2021, the focus of our clients shifted to certain types of tasks (rather, even to certain types of online resources). As a result, we have adjusted our approaches and proposals, while maintaining the key – our focus on IP/IT expertise and a focus on certain industries.
What laws and proceedings were worth attention this year?
The most important thing: the decision on the Epic Games vs. Apple dispute, as well as the processes that accompanied this dispute around the world (in South Korea, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Russia, etc.). Let me remind you, they were all aimed at allowing third-party payment instruments to applications in the App Store ecosystem.
Despite the hype of both news and solutions (now you can pay in third-party payment instruments), the effect of the dispute, as well as the processes accompanying it, may not become revolutionary (the devil, as they say, is in the details).
Also of the important events from a legal and legal point of view , I will note:
- class action against CDPR (this is a textbook example of how the same jurisdiction from Tier 1 gives exclusive “buns” and can also punish exclusively);
- the law on landing in Russia (the real effect of the beginning of its action is not very clear yet);
- a package of measures to support the IT industry, in which a separate section was devoted to video games (however, here it is rather a reason for discussion, because, strictly speaking, there is nothing revolutionary in this list for gaming).
What legislative initiatives do you expect from next year?
Most likely, a law will be adopted based on the “anti-piracy” memorandum. I know that many people are indifferent to piracy in the industry (someone may even support it), but major international majors will definitely be interested in this.
I remember saying this last year, but circumstances force me to repeat this forecast: perhaps some of the support measures announced by the Government of the Russian Federation will come true.
In the world, regulators will focus their attention on everything related to the protection of children in the broadest sense: prohibited/restricted content distribution, control of time spent in the game, features of personal data processing, and so on.
In addition to the “Results” App2Top.ru this year holds App2Top.ru Awards. This is an award celebrating achievements in the Russian-speaking gaming industry for the current year. Most of the interview participants are members of the jury, which will select the winners of the award.