How Rospatent Assesses Trademarks Tied to Social or Public Events

As you know, trademarks are an important marketing tool that allows you to form brand awareness and distinguish it from similar goods (works, services). In this regard, designations that are associated with social events are of particular commercial value, since they attract the attention of the consumer not only through visual perception, but also due to the direct association of the designation with the corresponding event.

Obviously, the more global the scale of the event, the more people are involved in its sphere in one way or another: from simple information interest to direct participation.

In this article, we will show several examples of such designations and consider how the registration authority approaches the consideration of such applications.

Symbols related to political events

According to media reports, on August 15 of this year, Rospatent received an application for registration as a trademark of the designation "Meeting in Alaska", which the applicant plans to use in relation to alcoholic beverages, food, toys, printed publications, souvenirs and other goods.

The moment of submitting the application was timed to coincide with an event that was widely covered in the media and aroused significant public interest - a meeting of the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, aimed at resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Time will tell what decision Rospatent will make on the application, but many experts from the relevant field are skeptical. In their opinion, this initiative has no significant chances of registration. In particular, registration may be hindered by the fact that Alaska is the largest US state in terms of territory, a geographical name, which gives grounds for refusing to mislead consumers about the location of the applicant, if he does not have a legal relationship to this place. However, something else is more important – this designation has a clear political connotation, which may be regarded by the agency as contrary to the public interest and, accordingly, entail a refusal to register the disputed designation on the basis of subparagraph 2 of clause 3 of Article 1483 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

According to the Rules for the preparation, submission and consideration of documents that are the basis for legally significant actions for the state registration of trademarks, designations that are contrary to the public interest, the principles of humanity and morality include, in particular, unethically used national and (or) state symbols (coats of arms, flags, emblems), anti-state slogans, words and images of obscene content, calls for inhumane offending human dignity, religious feelings of believers, words the spelling of which violates the rules of spelling.

Since the list of cases specified in the Rules when the registration of a trademark may be contrary to the public interest is not exhaustive, the Office has the right to refuse on this ground in other situations as well. However, in this case, Rospatent is obliged to indicate which specific public interests may be violated in the event of registration of the designation, without taking into account the negative associations of Rospatent employees in relation to the designation, if it is not reasonably likely to harm the specific public interest (Clause 2.1.3.2. Review of judicial practice for the period from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2024, presented in the Classifier of Decisions of the Presidium of the Court on Intellectual Property Rights).

At the same time, experience shows that the agency, as a rule, almost always refuses to register designations that have a political connotation, on the basis of contradiction to the public interest.

Pandemic-related designations

At the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus infection COVID-19 spread in the world, which the WHO classified as a pandemic and called on the world community to take emergency measures, including isolation, etc:

Application No. 2020714259

Application N 2020716080

However, even before the consideration of the applications on the merits, the representative of Rospatent stated that their registration prospects were doubtful: it is unlikely that such designations can perform the key function of a trademark to individualize a product or service, and for a number of goods they are able to mislead consumers about the product, its purpose and properties. And, of course, the compliance of such designations with moral standards when using them as a trademark raises questions.

As a result, such applications were either refused registration or were withdrawn.

Disaster Notation

Both in Russia and in world practice, as a rule, registration is denied to designations that cause an association with high-profile tragic events. In such cases, the reason for refusal is usually the contradiction of the designation with moral and ethical norms.

For example, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused to register the designations "September 11, 2001" and "Boston Strong," which were associated with the terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States on September 11, 2011 and April 15, 2013.

In Russia, Rospatent refused to register a designation that caused a direct association with a plane crash when in August 2019 a Ural Airlines plane made an emergency landing in a cornfield. Thanks to the wide coverage of the situation in the media, the phrase "Go to the right in the sun along the rows of corn", which was uttered by the flight attendant to lead passengers to the road, instantly became popular, and then, on a wave of excitement, Rospatent received an application for registration as a trademark of the following designation:

Application No. 2019754058

Based on this disaster, a feature film "In the Sun, Along the Rows of Corn" was filmed, but the corresponding trademark was not registered.

Designations related to sporting events

As WIPO notes, trademarks are powerful and indispensable marketing tools, and in the world of sports, their strategic use offers significant commercial revenue opportunities.

For example, on the eve of the World Cup in Russia, Rospatent registered trademarks in the name of FIFA containing the names of the cities and the host country: "Volgograd 2018", "Yekaterinburg 2018", "Moscow 2018", "Nizhny Novgorod 2018", "Russia 2018".

As Rospatent noted, the legal protection of these designations is aimed at protecting the official symbols of the World Cup, as well as the reputation of Russia as the country in which the World Cup was held. At the same time, their registration does not prevent entrepreneurs from using the names of the cities indicated in the designations and the numbers "2018" separately or together, if they do not cause a strong association with events in the minds of consumers. conducted by FIFA.

In conclusion, it should be noted that designations related to public events, although they can provide the right holder with additional commercial advantages, create significant difficulties in the process of their registration as a trademark. Therefore, before filing the relevant application, we recommend that you contact experts who will help you assess the real prospects for registration of the designation based on your practice of interaction with Rospatent.