Electronic Warfare in the BRICS Countries: Current State and Issues of Legal Regulation of Intellectual Property Rights (the Example of Brazil, India and South Africa)

The subject of the research in this article is the means and systems of electronic warfare in the BRICS countries on the example of the approaches of Brazil, India and South Africa in the context of the protection of intellectual property rights by means and mechanisms, such as patents and trade secrets (know-how). The relevance of the study is due to the fact that modern states, and the selected BRICS countries are no exception, are aware of the importance and practical significance of electronic warfare and strive to develop such tools and systems or acquire them from those who have achieved success in their development. This requires an understanding of their approaches, including the development and implementation of such tools and systems from the perspective of law. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the goal itself and the results of the work. Thus, it was revealed that in Brazil the issues of providing the country with innovative military equipment, including electronic warfare, are solved both by national companies and military institutions independently, and in cooperation with foreign military and industrial corporations; in India work is underway to create a new generation of ground- and air-based electronic warfare systems with an extended range, South Africa has a number of achievements in this area. As for the protection of such technical achievements by the provisions of the intellectual property law, South Africa (unlike Brazil and India) openly proclaims a system of keeping military innovations secret, while in the other two countries the emphasis is made on patenting.

Electronic warfare, electronic warfare tools and systems, BRICS, Brazil, India, South Africa, patent protection, know-how, trade secrets, trade secrets