Patent Trolls and Possible Mechanisms to Combat Them

Who Are Trademark Trolls and How Do They Profit?

Patent trolls: characters from fairy tales or characters from real life? In the field of intellectual property, you can often find such concepts as "patent trolls/brand trolls/trademark squatters" - they all have one thing in common: the goal that they pursue when registering the results of intellectual activity. In this article, we will consider how patent trolls act in the field of trademarks and what mechanisms can be used to combat them.

Patent trolls in the field of trademarks (brand trolls) are persons who purposefully register trademarks in their own name, not for the development of their business, but as a tool for filing claims against bona fide market participants, i.e., for the purpose of making a profit. According to the definition specified in Article 1484 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, "No one has the right to use designations similar to his trademark without the permission of the right holder in relation to the goods for the individualization of which the trademark is registered, or similar goods, if as a result of such use there is a possibility of confusion." For violation of exclusive rights, the right holder may demand compensation for losses or compensation, the amount of which is prescribed in paragraph 4 of Article 1515 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Thus, by registering trademarks, brand trolls pursue the goal of profit. They actively monitor and analyze the market and register designations that are already used in commercial activities, but are not registered as trademarks. Their purpose is to file a claim for illegal use of the trademark after the registration of the trademark, or to get ahead of the persons using the trademarks in filing.

As a rule, brand trolls register trademarks for an extensive list of goods and services to be able to cover as much as possible the scope of activities of potential persons who can subsequently be claimed. Patent trolls also often use their trademarks as objects for sale, i.e., they offer to buy a trademark for a fee.

How to Protect Your Business from Trademark Trolls

How to protect yourself from the actions of branded trolls? The easiest way is to take care of the protection of your exclusive rights and register a trademark before launching products under a certain trademark in order to have the exclusive right to the trademark and not be attacked by brand trolls. Such measures will be more profitable from an economic point of view than the possible costs of litigation and compensation for illegal use of trademarks, as well as rebranding.

How to identify branded trolls? To begin with, it is necessary to pay attention to the portfolio of trademarks of the right holder – if he has a large number of trademarks registered for various unrelated areas of activity in which he does not operate – this is the first red flag that should alert you. It is also necessary to pay attention to the judicial activity of the copyright holder, namely, to check the cases in which he acts as a plaintiff - if their number is significant, this should also alert you.

In the field of trademarks, for example, there are well-known patent trolls - among them we can note Ibatullin Azamat Valeryanovich, who registers a large number of trademarks for various common words and phrases, for example: "Katyusha" No. 1210384; "Soloist" No. 639084; "Princess" No. 664223; "Shkatulka" No.938924, etc., and is also an active participant in court cases, acting as a plaintiff.

Such companies as the Association of Business Cooperation of Afghanistan Veterans "MIR", LLC "New Technologies", LLC "Trading House "MIR-2000" can also be distinguished. The portfolio of trademarks of these companies also includes a large number of trademarks registered for various fields of activity, for example: "Bogatyr" No. 143624; "The Magician" No. 158804; "The Sovereign" No. 178018; "My Angel" No. 197555, etc.

The company LLC "Gifts Wholesale" has also shown itself as a patent troll - a large number of popular expressions are registered in the name of this company, for example: "As if I am specially the best" № 1010515; "Magic for the whole head" № 1052525; "The goddess is a state of mind" № 889583; "Be happy every minute" № 1054399; "I am an accountant, I need" № 1072229; "Mom needs to rest" № 846031; "Witches do not grow old" № 899883; "Do not wait for the miracle, create one yourself" № 1105968. This company is also an active participant in court cases, acting as a plaintiff.

What Measures Is the Government Taking?

The activities of patent trolls are a rather acute problem for bona fide market participants, and it can be seen that the state has begun to pay more and more attention to this issue and search for possible ways to reduce the activity of patent trolls.

So, one of the ways to reduce the activity of branded trolls can be called an increase in state duties - these changes took place in 2025. On October 4, 2025, a new Regulation on Patent and Other Fees came into force, which changed the calculation of the amount of state fees for filing applications. If earlier the amount of the duty depended on the number of classes and did not relate to the number of items of goods and services in the class, now the number of items of goods and services in the class directly affects the amount of the duty. Thus, for one class of the Nice Classification, the fee for filing an application and conducting an examination is 17,000 rubles – this fee is fixed up to 10 items of goods and services, and for each additional item over ten, a fee of 500 rubles is charged. Similar changes apply to the procedure for the renewal of trademarks – up to 5 classes, the amount of the fee is 22,000 rubles, provided that up to 10 items of goods and services in them are charged, and for each additional item over 10, a fee of 500 rubles is charged. After all, such registration entails high costs. If earlier brand trolls massively submitted applications for full lists of goods and services, now the choice of items for registration has to be approached more carefully.

Since August 2025, there have also been active discussions in the field of intellectual property about draft laws that will help combat patent trolls and reduce their activity. So, within the framework of the Technoprom-2025 forum in Novosibirsk, Yuri Zubov (head of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property) said that such bills are in development. And by September 2026, the following changes are expected: a clause on the declaration of use of the trademark will appear in the application form for registration of the trademark, i.e., the applicant will have to confirm his intention to use the trademark after its registration when filing an application. Such measures should help reduce the number of applications filed by patent trolls and protect the rights of bona fide market participants.

It is obvious that patent trolls pose a serious threat to business, and in order not to encounter them and minimize financial costs, it is necessary to take care of the protection of your intellectual property in advance and register a trademark to use it in your activities legally and not be afraid of attacks by patent trolls.

On the part of the state, there is also a consistent modernization of mechanisms for countering patent trolls. At the same time, the final effectiveness of the introduction of new mechanisms for combating patent trolls will be known in the course of their practical application.