Maxim Ali has commented for the DP on a litigation strategy for registering a similar trademark

The Intellectual Property Rights Courthas accepted a lawsuit filed by Ruscom-Agro, a large pork farm from Omsk. The company is asking for an early termination of protection of the trademark “Indicom” owned by Lyubimyi Krai Confectionary Association, an asset of August Meyer, one of the richest businessmen in Russia, according to Forbes magazine.

The disputed trademark is not currently used by the defendant, but Ruscom-Agro is unable to register its own trademark “INDI” because of its rights to it.

“Those who want to terminate someone else’s trademark rights due to non-use usually have two main motives. The first is that they need to register their own (similar) mark. The second is that there is a threat of a lawsuit from the owner of the unused mark. Judging by the fact that Ruscom-Agro has initiated a whole series of cases against owners of various marks with the element of “INDI”, it seems that this is really about an attempt to register a trademark”, Maxim Ali, Partner and Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, told Delovoy Peterburg newspaper. 

According to the expert, challenging someone else’s trademarks may come in handy for Ruscom-Agro in the future if Rospatent rejects its trademark application and the rejection decision is reviewed by the Chamber of Patent Disputes. For now, however, the courts are not in favour of Ruscom-Agro, as seen in the series of disputes with Damate Agribusiness.

Besides, as Maxim Ali added, Ruscom-Agro had already registered the “INDI” trademark back in 2002 with an application. “It would probably have been easier for the company to fight for clearing the register of Rospatent from similar trademarks if the competing marks were tracked and Ruscom-Agro filed opposition against them with Rospatent at the registration stage”, said the expert. 

To read the full article (in Russian) please visit Delovoy Peterburg website >>>