In a dispute born truth or how to defend your trademark rights
Disputes over intellectual property rights is always a fairly lengthy list of the various situations that might face the business, from appeals against decisions of Rospatent (the government Agency responsible for the registration of trademarks) relating to the registration of certain trademarks and disputes concerning infringement of exclusive rights to intellectual property to the requirements of termination of the use of another's trademark and the recognition of certain actions of contractors act of unfair competition.
Such conflicts represent a separate branch of law which is governed by section IV of part four of the Civil code of the Russian Federation.
Lawyers Sparta Consulting have vast experience in this field of law, has won complex in its texture and composition of participants in the case and will at the highest level to provide all relevant legal services in respect of the use of results of intellectual activity.
Disputes relating to the registration of a trademark
In the first place by the frequency of reference requests in rendering of legal services on intellectual property is the registration of the trademark, its registration and execution of renewal, if he has completed his action, i.e. the expiration of his possible use.
In order to become a happy owner of the exclusive rights to use the trademark, it must first be registered.
With all this trademark will be considered to be adequately protected only in relation to those goods, works, services in respect of which it is registered.
An important nuance is that if a trademark is not used within three years, its protection can be terminated at the request of any interested person.
However, if the Rospatent refused registration of the trademark, you may submit your objections in Chamber on patent disputes of Rospatent, which then can be appealed only in court.
An important condition of ensuring the registration of its trademark is its absolute novelty.
For example, the Rospatent refused registration are identical, cognate, or "similar to the point of confusion" trademark application for registration which was filed earlier by another organization or natural person in respect of the same goods. This organization or individual has a priority right to use the trademark.
It should be noted that most of the disagreement related to the issues of trademark registration, do not reach court and are settled by the Chamber for patent disputes of Rospatent.
The main part of judicial proceedings are the cases of illegal use of trademarks.
The violation of trademark rights
In life there are so that competitors can not use exactly the same trademark as its owner, and is very similar.
In such cases, the owner of the original trademark, you need evidence to confirm that a trademark is similar to the degree of mixing and introduce consumers or other counterparties misled in respect of the product and its manufacturer.
In this case, is not forbidden as evidence to use conclusion third party organizations can act as experts.
For example, in one case, accompanied by specialists , Sparta Consulting,the company "X" has addressed in court with the requirement to prohibit the company "Y" to use for labeling their products called "ХХХ1" similar to degree of mixture with the world known brand "XXX".
Lawyers Sparta Consulting announced the holding of an independent examination.
By the conclusion of the Federal Institute for industrial property confirmed that the name "XXX" and "XXX1" is similar to the point of confusion and can mislead consumers concerning the product and its manufacturer
Eventually the lawsuit was won. The defendant not only reimbursed the plaintiff for all losses and pay the statutory penalties, but was forced to end production of its product and in the end forever gone from the market.
The question arises: is it possible to prosecute not only the offender who tried to use someone else's trademark and brand name, but the person who purchased this product knowing that it comes the person is not authorized?
In this case, you should pay attention to the fact that the offender may not be the only company that independently produced products and used them on someone else's trademark, but also companies that implement or storing these products. In the latter case, however, will need to prove that the goods were stored with a view to their subsequent sale and not for own consumption.
For example, lawyers Sparta Consulting conducted the case in which a plant for the production of portable radios and walkie-talkies filed a lawsuit against the store which sold goods of another manufacturer with the trademark image of the plant.
The store management thought can not be responsible for infringement of trademark rights because the shop was not the manufacturer of the goods, and only deal with the implementation.
However, because the offer for sale of counterfeit goods is itself a violation of trademark rights, the court granted the suit and ordered the store to remove the product from sale.
Of course, the mere storage of goods with a trademark owned by a third party, can not be considered a violation. If the organization just provided its premises for the storage of goods, and intends to sell it to another firm, then the seller will be the offender.
Established lawyers SpartaConsulting for more than 10 years period of time, the experience shows that each case involving the conflict of trademark rights, is special and always has a number of possible solutions.
It is important at the first stage, to correctly analyze the situation and choose the most promising ways of proving his legal position.
It is known that disputes regarding trademark rights, can be resolved in administrative, civil or criminal proceedings. Evaluation of all "pros and cons" of a particular path – one of the main conditions of success.
Services Sparta Consulting in the field of "Intellectual property" includes the following stages: