Maxim Ali has provided his comments on the potential court proceedings between two meat producers over packaging design

The St Petersburg branch of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service has begun investigating the meat producer Belikoluksky Myasokombinat following a complaint from another meat producer Pit-Produkt.  Pit-Produkt believes that the new packaging used by the Pskov meat producer closely resembles the colouring of their brand and could mislead consumers.

The Head of the IP/IT Practice at Maxima Legal, Maxim Ali told business newspaper Delovoy Peterburg that the starting point will be to determine whether there is a high risk that consumers may be confused.  “In order to resolve such a dilemma, to perform this expert role, it is likely the regulator will conduct a survey.  The Federal Antimonopoly Service sometimes conducts such surveys via its social networking pages, showing two products and asking: “What do you think, can you distinguish between the products or not?”, explained Maxim.

Furthermore, according to Maxim Ali, in order for a ruling of unfair competition to be made it will be necessary to show that the companies are competitors in the same goods market.

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