The Intellectual Rights Court questions the reputation of the brand with 20 years of history

11.08.2014
Fresh water makes from the former nuclear science city Arzamas-16, currently Sarova, have been fighting for intellectual property for nearly 10 years. The fight goes on in a format, which is rarely used in the Russian practice of law application – on two fronts at once: concerning the place of fabrication of the commodity as well as concerning the brand itself. The rightholder with 20 years of history has been comfortably winning until recently, but the Intellectual Rights Court returned the case for reconsideration <…>

The new consideration should assess the repute of Sarova as a toponym or the lack of it “as of the date of filing of the application to register the trademark” – such was the instruction given by the IRC Board to the first instance. Denis Shumskiy, advocate of the Law Firm "YUST", believes that should the court ascertain that the toponym was recognizable in 1992, the trademark registration may be ruled invalid. That was the end of the Soviet era, during which large sectors of society knew little about geographical names of religious significance – and less so if those were not present on the maps. Still, D.Shumskiy believes that the cassation resolution is not without grounds.

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