Registration of trademarks for bottled water

When conducting an examination of a designation that is applied for registration as a trademark, the registering authority must check the designation for compliance with the requirements of paragraph 3 of Article 1483 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, namely, establishes whether the designation is false or capable of misleading the consumer regarding the product, its manufacturer or place of production.

At the same time, the agency proceeds from the fact that such designations include designations that generate in the consumer's mind an idea of a certain quality of the product, its manufacturer, place of production or origin, which does not correspond to reality. If at least one of the elements of the designation is false or misleading, the applicant is denied registration of the trademark.

In this regard, the practice of Rospatent and its approaches to the registration of designations that are claimed as a trademark in relation to bottled water are of interest. Thus, as part of the fight against false environmental marketing, the agency applies a stricter approach to the examination of designations that may cause an association with the fact that drinking water is of natural origin.

But first things first.

What drinking water is of natural origin

According to the EAEU Technical Regulation 044/2017 "On the safety of packaged drinking water, including natural mineral water", depending on the source of origin, drinking water is divided into natural and treated.

Natural drinking water includes water that is extracted from specific natural sources - underground (wells) or surface (glaciers, springs, etc.) and during the treatment of which the basic composition of water does not change.

Treated water includes water that is obtained from various water intakes and during the treatment (purification) of which methods that change the composition of water can be used.

Thus, unlike treated water, the source of natural water is always associated with the corresponding geographical object. On this basis, the agency adheres to the position that the presence of the name of a geographical object or an image of mountains, rivers and streams in a trademark intended for labeling bottled drinking water can create a deceptive impression among consumers that there is natural water in bottles.

In this regard, in October 2024, the department decided not to register such trademarks without documents that confirm the natural origin of water.

In addition, when choosing a designation, it is necessary to take into account that its name does not overlap with the names of mineral natural drinking waters, which are named in the relevant national standard (GOST R 54316-2020). Otherwise, the office will refuse to register the trademark.

For which goods of class 32 of the Nice Classification it is necessary to confirm the origin of water

It is important to note that it is not necessary to confirm the natural origin for all types of drinking bottled water, but only for certain goods that are included in class 32 of the Nice Classification.

These include: non-alcoholic aperitifs, carbonated water, lithium water, seltzer water, soda water, water (drinks), mineral water (drinks), table water.

For designations with a "geographic" association, which are declared for other goods of this class, the corresponding confirmation is not required.

How to confirm the natural origin of drinking water

Since there is no legal list of documents with the help of which it is possible to confirm the natural origin of water, Rospatent does not restrict the applicant in proving this fact.

In practice, as a rule, such documents include licenses for water production, subsoil use agreements concluded for a long time, etc.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the applicant must have a direct connection with the source of origin of the water, since geographical referencing through an intermediary entails the risk of refusal to register the trademark. For example, in a situation where the owner of the disputed designation sells drinks produced by other enterprises, but is not able to extract natural water himself. The applicant's contracts with natural water producers did not in itself preclude him from placing orders with any other facility that produced non-natural water. However, the use of the controversial designation in relation to such water creates an opportunity to mislead the consumer.

Thus, we recommend that when choosing designation elements for bottled water, take into account the actual position of Rospatent and avoid possible associations with geographical reference, unless there are sufficient grounds for this.