Kirill Katkov has commented for Telesputnik on Google’s interest in registering new trademarks in Russia

In autumn 2023, Google LLC submitted applications to Rospatent to register the trademarks “YouTube BrandConnect”, “YouTube Super stickers” and “YouTube Super chat”.

Kirill Katkov, Associate at Maxima Legal, explained to Telesputnik magazine, the BrandConnect platform is designed for mutual search and cooperation between brands and advertising content providers, while Super chat and Super stickers are paid text messages and animated images that viewers can send in chat to communicate with and support the authors. According to Maxima Legal’s expert, Rospatent’s position will not be political: since the geopolitical situation became more complicated, the office has taken both positive and negative, but formally justified decisions on Google LLC applications.

At the same time, since the spring of 2022, Google has suspended the display of advertising on YouTube to users located in Russia, and the products and services for which the trademarks and service marks “YouTube BrandConnect”, “YouTube Super chat” and “YouTube Super stickers” are intended, have become unavailable in Russia.

“The filing of trademark applications under these circumstances can be seen as evidence that Google views the current geopolitical situation as temporary and is preparing to return access to content monetisation tools to users from Russia and, moreover, to expand the ability of authors to integrate advertising into videos,” Kirill Katkov commented. He added that Google probably wants to retain its trademarks so that during the suspension of the Internet giant’s activities in Russia they will not be registered by other interested parties.

The intention to register trademarks for products related specifically to the monetisation of content on YouTube may also be due to the lawsuits filed by Russian TV channels, in which Google was ordered to restore access to blocked channels and their monetisation.

The continued interest in the Russian market is also evidenced by the initiation of Google dispute on the early termination of protection of the trademark “Meets”, which will allow the U.S. company to remove the obstacle to the registration in Russia its own trademark containing the designation “Meets”, Kirill Katkov summed up.

To read the full article (in Russian), please see Telesputnik magazine`s website >>>