Maxim Ali has commented to Advokatskaya Gazeta newspaper on the reversal in appeal of the famous Peppa Pig case

The Second  Commercial Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling of The Kirov Regional Commercial Court which denied protection of intellectual property rights to the characters of Peppa Pig animated series. As a reminder, in March 2022 Entertainment One, the British company that owns the rights, tried to recover about RUB 40, 000 from a russian businessman who had used the image of the cartoon characters on its products. The Kirov Regional Commercial Court considered the foreign company`s actions as abuse of civil rights, citing the sanctioning hostility of Great Britain.

Maxim Ali, Partner and Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, described the appeal ruling as logical and justified. “Most importantly, it was confirmed that the UK rights holders are also guaranteed legal protection for their works. This was to be expected: cases have appeared in which the claims of foreign companies to protect exclusive rights have been satisfied since the sensational first-instance decision. Therefore, a further ‘politicised’ vector of justification for the rejection of the claim initially seemed unlikely. The main significance of this ruling is that the Peppa Pig decision will no longer be used by unscrupulous defendants to avoid liability. The doubting judges, if there were any, saw one more proof of inconsistency of the position of The Kirov Regional Commercial Court”, explained the expert specially to Advokatskaya Gazeta newspaper.

To read the full article (in Russian) please visit Advokatskaya Gazeta newspaper website >>>