Annotation

The article examines legal mechanisms for protecting the subjective right to freely use works that have entered the public domain, particularly in cases where other parties assert exclusive rights to such works or their derivative versions. The author analyzes the limitations of using counterclaims and special proceedings in the presence of a legal dispute and substantiates the possibility of filing an independent claim for the absence of exclusive rights. The proposed approach enables a balanced protection of public interests while preventing abuse of rights in the field of intellectual property, especially with respect to foreign works, taking into account the principle of lex loci protectionis.