By Tatiana Petrova
Rospatent refused to register a mark on the grounds that it is against the public interest to register two identical marks for identical goods/services in the name of a single entity
The IP court disagreed, finding that such approach could lead to the impossibility of registering a series of trademarks
On appeal, the Supreme Court agreed with Rospatent and returned the case to the court for reconsideration
Russian law does not directly prohibit the registration of identical trademarks for identical goods in the name of the same entity. However, in practice, the Russian Trademark Office (Rospatent) refuses to register such marks on the ground that such duplication is against the public interest. In a recent decision (No 300-ES20-12050, 15 December 2020), the Supreme Court has extended this approach to highly similar trademarks. Read more