Maxim Ali told Novy Prospect about the confrontation between Lavera and Levrana trademarks
The German company Laverana GMBH producing cosmetics under the brand Laverana GMBH is using legal proceedings to disallow «Levrana» LLC from Saint-Petersburg to operate under the so named trademark. The first lawsuit was lodged to the Commercial Court of Moscow in 2019. The Claimer insisted on the confusing similarity of Lavera and Levrana trademarks. After losing at court of primary jurisdiction and at court of appeal the German manufacturer filed a cassation appeal to the Court of Intellectual Rights, which remanded the case for a new trial and pointed out the mistakes made by inferior jurisdictions. Next session of the court on the dispute between Laverana GMBH and Levrana LLC is scheduled on 19th of July.
Maxim Ali, Partner, Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, confirmed that « the Court of Intellectual Rights pays a lot of attention to judicial acts issued by inferior courts. This often leads to remanding the case for a new trial». He attracted the «Novy Prospect» attention to the fact that court of primary jurisdiction and at court of appeal have conducted several mistakes and that led to the impropriety of judicial acts.
In particular, inferior courts haven’t checked the homogeneity of products which can influence the confusing similarity. «Moreover, courts haven’t indicated the degree of resemblance between trademark and logo, although the Court of Intellectual Rights was able to assume that the resemblance has been low» – explained the expert.
According to Maxim, another mistake was that inferior courts compared the Claimers’ «trade designation» (actual logo) instead of trademark. «Such approach is inappropriate because the defense concerns trademark» – said the specialist.
Maxim Ali stated that the conclusion of the Court of Intellectual Rights was correct and the inferior jurisdictions haven’t substantiated all necessary facts which could have influenced the legality of the decision.
Trying to estimate Laveranas’ chances to win the Court expert noticed that the German manufacturer «will get the chance to furnish new proofs, for example, to ask for expertise. The Claimer didn’t have these opportunities in the Appeal Court and in the Court of Intellectual Rights».
However, according to Maxim, «current proofs are intended to be for the benefit of Russian «Levrana» LLC. For example the results of the poll taken by Russian Public Opinion Research Center [the poll was ordered by «Levrana» LLC and showed that there’s no confusing similarity between Lavera and Levrana brands] is a very strong proof and it will be hard to «outbalance» it with something contrary».
To read the full article (in Russian) please go to Novy Prospect website >>>