Brand wars: attack and defense tactics

Dmitry Seregin, Adviser of the Law Firm "YUST", commented for the Pravo.ru portal on the possibility to register a right to the form of a goods, which complicates the consideration of patent cases in the Russian courts: “Registration of a goods’ form as a trademark is an exclusive case, and may be allowed, when the use of such form by another entity may mislead the customer. The CCRF allows registration of 3D and other signs as trademarks. However, this does not mean that any 3D geometrical figure can be registered as a trademark. 3D trademarks, just like the “conventional” ones, need to be distinctive – the customer should associate the sign with a certain manufacturer on the basis of perception of the sign. Meanwhile, the distinctiveness of the goods’ form (that is, the customer’s associations) might differ in different countries”.