Ford Loses Trademark Appeal in Russian IP Court

Russia’s Intellectual Property Court sided with the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patens and Trademarks (ROSPATENT) in refusing to recognize Ford’s trademark as a protected word in Russia. In March, ROSPATENT ruled against Ford's petition to recognize the “Ford” trademark in the form of a blue oval with “Ford” written inside as a word that has been extensively used in Russia since June 1, 2007 to identify cars, car parts and accessories.  According to ROSPATENT, the materials provided by Ford were not enough to prove its claim that the word “Ford” is used extensively exactly as cited in the petition.  In addition, ROSPATENT said that “different forms of the trademark with the word Ford were used to mark Ford vehicles throughout its history.”

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20141027/272466458.html

Russian Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Parallel Importer

Russia’s Supreme Court declined to review the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Aqualife - a parallel importer of Krusovice (a registered trademark of global brewer Heineken Ceska Republica).  "Parallel" or "grey" imports are goods imported from another country without the permission of the official manufacturer, and Russia's Supreme Commercial Court confirmed in November that such parallel imports are illegal.  Heineken registered the Krusovice brand in Russia with Rospatent in 2004 in relation to just one commodity - beer.  A lawyer representing Aqualife said during the court hearing that the company is interested in the brand because its capacity to place the product on the market is limited without it. Earlier, the court dismissed another lawsuit filed by Aqualife against Diadgeo Ireland to terminate legal protection of the Guinness trademark. Currently, Heineken owns eight breweries in Russia.
http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20140403/271074485.html

Jaguar Challenges Russia's Approval of "Funny Jaguar" Trademark

UK company Jaguar Land Rover has filed a suit against the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) seeking to invalidate their decision to provide legal protection for the Funny Jaguar trademark. The trademark, including the brand name "Funny Jaguar", was registered in 2012 at the request of businessman Alexander Petrov under three classes Goods and Services -- vehicles, advertising, and games and playthings -- and is used for children’s bicycles.  According to a 2013 complaint filed by Jaguar, the new trademark is confusingly similar to the Jaguar trademark.
Rospatent’s Chamber for Patent Disputes concluded that there is no similarity between the trademarks Funny Jaguar, Jaguar Racing and Jaguar Selected, which denote different items, even though they all include the word “Jaguar.”  The hearing on Jaguar's claim filed against Rospatent has been scheduled for February.
http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20140123/270524435.html

Russia's Patent Service Makes Online Trademark Search Tool Available

As of 18 December 2013, Rospatent has made its trademark data available to the TMview search tool, (in both English and Russian).  This integration is a result of a 3-year international cooperation program managed by OHIM (Office for Harmoninzation in Internal Markets) aimed at modernizing IPR in the Russian Federation.  TMview is the online multilingual consultation tool allowing users to search trademarks of all the participating trademark Offices free of charge. Since its introduction on 13 April 2010, the tool has served more than 5 million searches from 205 different countries, with users from Spain, Germany and Italy among the most frequent visitors.  Besides Rospatent, as of December 18, 2013, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has also integrated into TMview.  This last extension brings the total number of offices participating in TMview to 34 and with the addition of more than 400.000 Russian trademarks, as well as about 6.5 million US trade marks. TMview now provides information and access to almost than 20 million trade marks in total.

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/el_zayav/
http://www.tmview.org.
http://www.rupto.ru/rupto/portal/21c4d4c0-694e-11e3-731c-9c8e9921fb2c?lang=en

Apple Prevails in Russian Bid to Register "Mission Control" Trademark

The Board of the Chamber of Patent Disputes overturned a prior Rospatent refusal to register Apple's trademark "Mission Control", which is the name of one of the applications for the Mac OS X operating system.  Rospatent's August 2012 decision was based on an expert opinion, which found that the phrase "Mission Control" could not be registered because, among other things, the Russian translation of the phrase - "mission control center" - is connected with space.  Apple filed an objection, arguing that the term "Mission Control" was not accurately translated as the phrase "Mission Control Center", a phrase closely aligned with NASA's space program, and abbreviated as MCC.  In addition, Apple argued that its "Mission Control" trademark had been recognized by several other authorities, including those in the EU, Japan, Iceland, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.  The Chamber of Patent Disputes agreed with Apple, and allowed Russian registration of the Mission Control trademark.

http://izvestia.ru/news/544458

Moscow's AEB to Host Intellectual Property Conference June 14th

Moscow's Association of European Businesses is hosting its fourth annual conference on "Intellectual Property Rights: Recent Trends, Court Practices, Problems and Solutions.” The AEB's Intellectual Property Committee has organized the conference to touch upon key issues in the sphere of intellectual property, as presented by government officials, legal professionals and leading Russian business people.  
The conference will take place on June 14th 2012, in Moscow, at the  EU Delegation building (Moscow, Kadashevskaya naberezhnaya, 14/1), from 9:15 to 14:30. Registration starts at 8:30. 
The working languages of the conference are English and Russian. Interpretation will be provided.
AEB members’ participation for assigned representatives is free of charge; a fee for additional representatives of AEB members is 3,000 RUR (+VAT 18 %); and a fee for representatives of non-member companies: 6,500 RUR (+VAT 18 %).  For more information, contact Julia Kucherova, AEB Committee Coordinator, Julia.kucherova@aebrus.ru, tel.: 234.27.64, ext.150.


Registration online at: www.aebrus.ru/events/registration

Russian Patent Office Announces Coordinated Approval Process with Finland

The Russian Patent Office ("ROSPATENT") announced a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Patent & Registration Office of Finland, aimed at accelerating patent approval and prosecution proceedings through the creation of a Patent Prosecution Highway ("PPH").  Dozens of PPHs exist around the world, including one between ROSPATENT and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which allow participating patent offices to share information concerning examination and approval of patents, ultimately streamlining the patent prosecution process, coordinating approval efforts, and reducing duplication of labor and resources.  The Russian-Finnish PPH will begin coordinated operations in March of 2011.

http://www.rupto.ru/mejd_sotr/sod/pph/Inform_soobshenija_i_pressrelizi/nbpr.htm