Category Archives: Trademark Registration in Russia

“Dimon” trademark to be registered in Russia

Rospatent received an application for the registration of “Dimon” trademark in Russia. The application was published on the website of the Russian Patent and Trademark Office.

The applicant is Maria Iris, ColleMassari winemaking company’s owner. The applicant’s address is a small house in the village of Poggi del Sasso in central Italy.

The brand is to be registered under 16th, 33rd, and 35th Nice classes, thus covering alcoholic beverages, packaging materials, and also to be used in advertising.

The assistant manager of the winery Fattoria della Aiola who appears in Alexei Navalny’s investigation “He is not Dimon” targeting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Daria Ivleva stated that ColleMassari, a competitor of their company, applied for brand registration in Russia in order to gain profit from the scandal in relation to Medvedev. She noted that ColleMassari is a well-known company in Tuscany.

“Dimon” nickname (rude for “Dmitry”) of the Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev was carelessly coined by his own press secretary Natalia Timakova when commenting her boss’ corruption allegations made in 2016.

Norilsk Nickel entered top 20 metallurgy brands in the world

Brand Finance’s independent brand evaluation consultant estimated the brand of Norilsk Nickel at $ 675 million, the company’s report says. Logotype and trademark of the company were included in the list of the most significant and expensive brands in the world in the metallurgical and mining industry, the consultant writes. The brand of Norilsk Nickel is placed at the 20th line.

The list is topped by Glencore, its brand is estimated at $ 4.2 billion, followed by BHP Billiton ($ 3.9 billion), and Posco (Korea) estimated at $ 3.7 billion.

The consultant made his estimate based on a trademark search and also the strength of the emotional connection that it causes in the company’s clients and employees, as well as the financial stability of the brand owner. At the same time, the brand value is calculated on the basis of royalty rates for the economy sector where the company operates and the specific income from the use of the brand that the parent company receives, the report says.

Trademark registration in Russia has been achieved in 2016. It included a new logo and several additional rebranding-related IP assets. “In 2016, we rebranded Norilsk Nickel to emphasize the main ideas and meanings of the image of our company – reliability and hope. I am sure that the higher place in the rating is the result of this work”, says Larisa Zelkova, senior vice-president of Norilsk Nickel.

Norilsk Nickel itself estimates the amount of intangible assets of the company several times cheaper: 4.9 billion rubles. It includes exclusive copyrights to computer software and databases, as well as exclusive rights of the patent holder for an invention, industrial design, utility model, licenses for the right to use subsoil and geological information. The logo itself is estimated at 2.4 million rubles.

Supreme Court: “Black Russian” trademark registration in Russia should be suspended

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the legality of the decision by Rospatent to invalidate legal protection for the “Black Russian” trademark.

As was previously found, the trademark registration in Russia has been made on June 10, 2013 in the name of a Dutch company Berklee Capital S.A. and covers “alcoholic beverages, namely cocktails” under the 33rd class of the International Classification of Goods and Services.

The grant decision was opposed by TSN Brands LTD on April 20, 2015 by filing an objection with Rospatent in a protest against granting legal protection to the trademark.

On December 29, 2015, the Russian Patent and Trademark Office agreed with the objection and suspended legal protection of the trademark. According to Rospatent, the “Black Russian” designation is the name of a type of food products – namely well-known cocktails – which does not possess a distinctive ability and thus cannot be used as a trademark.

This decision has been appealed by Berklee Capital S.A. to the Russian Intellectual Property Court (IPC), and later to the Supreme Court.

The Russian Intellectual Property Court in December 2016 confirmed the legality of Rospatent’s decision to invalidate the Black Russian trademark. Thus, the court rejected the cassation of Berklee Capital S.A. on the findings of IPC as the first instance. The Dutch company appealed to the court to challenge the decision of Rospatent.

The Russian Patent and Trademark Office found that the Black Russian designation was coined long before the filing date as the name of a cocktail consisting of vodka, coffee liqueur, and ice. At the same time, both Black Russian and its Russian translation (“Черный Русский”) is used as the designation of the drink.

Rospatent has noted that the description of the classic proportions and the recipe of the cocktail are found at the official website of the International Bartenders Association, which means that every barman can use them freely.

Despite the fact that the cocktail compositions can have different ingredients (in some versions it is mixed with Coca-Cola to reduce the alcohol contents), the base has always remained the same, that is, in any case it is a mixture of vodka and coffee liquor.

On the basis of an information letter by the Russian League of Bartenders, Rospatent has found that Black Russian / “Черный русский” cocktail is included in the list of official cocktails by the International Bartenders Association and has been known since 1949 and later appeared in Russia during in the early 1990s. The cocktail is also commonly included as a part of the mandatory bartender training program.

Rospatent came to a conclusion that Black Russian is perceived by the inhabitants of the Russian Federation as a certain type of cocktail, produced according to a certain recipe, thus having no distinctive ability, while being used as a designation for certain types of goods.