The activity of the foreign applicants in the trademark registration in Russia increased rather sharply, but many trademark owners faced problems.
Unfortunately, the world specialists are often devoid of the latest information concerning intellectual property protection in Russia.
To make the things worse, they use some outdated information prepared though not very long ago, but that are completely outdated in respect of certain figures and facts. For example, there is a rather good article on trademark infringement in Russia, but after it was written, very significant changes occured: introduced into force was the new Criminal Code, Russian Anti-Monopoly Committee issued several regulations concerning trademark protection, there were many trademark infringement suits considered by the courts, several decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and Supreme Arbitration Tribunal were taken. The dollar/ruble exchange rate became more real. It should be noted that during the last two years the courts of the RF considered about 120 trademark cases, in the Board of Appeals of the Russian Patent Office about 250 cases were considered, over 70% of which were appeals against registration of marks.
We should advise the companies entering the Russian market to use accurate and up-to-date information in taking the decisions and estimating the value of trademark protection in the peculiar Russian market.
2. Russia has witnessed lately maybe the greatest controversies over trademarks in the world. The most notorious controversies, still pending, concern the world famous marks ASPIRIN and SMIRNOFF. The former is considered to be just a generic noun. And the five year battle between the American and Russian producers of vodka resulted in refusal of the Patent Office to protect the word "SMIRNOFF", though both firms registered descriptive marks bearing the word.
Other problems the Western companies faced emerged due to omission of the timely registration of their marks in Russia.
There were several cases when Russian firms registered in their name the word marks identical or similar to trademarks of the Western companies and then demanded from the latter royalties for the use of the marks. Such were the cases with the marks PACLAN, GROLSCH, MeterInch and some others.
In other cases the Western companies were forced to take measures to stop the Russian companies use the marks similar to their names. Incidents do happen even with the world famous marks. For example in early 90-ties in Russia there was a
small enterprise named "Kodak" which provided service in the field of fotography. It took great effort, time and money for the foreign owners to restore their rights in Russia.
Therefore, before a company gives any sign of its intentions to enter the Russian market, appropriate steps should be taken for the timely registration of trademarks.