A Russian transport company has won a claim for infringement of exclusive rights

Russia's largest transport and logistics operator, Delovye Linii (Business Lines) LLC, has won a lawsuit against the company of the same name. The Bashkiria arbitration ordered the Ufa company Delovye Linii to stop using the name when carrying out four types of activities. She was also charged compensation in favor of the plaintiff for violation of the exclusive rights to the trademark in the amount of 500 thousand rubles.

The plaintiff's legal entity was registered in December 2002; it owns the rights to the trademark "Delovye Linii". The plaintiff pointed out that the Ufa company illegally uses a similar name in its name and carries out the same types of activities, which may mislead consumers.

Delovye Linii LLC was registered in Ufa in December 2024.

Sergey Zuykov, a patent attorney and managing partner of Zuykov and partners, called the court's decision absolutely legitimate both in terms of prohibiting the conduct of these activities and in determining the amount of compensation.

"In this case, the similarity of the names of legal entities is obvious, while both companies operate in the same market of goods and services, and the plaintiff obviously has priority in terms of registration and is better known. This suggests that the defendant's use of a similar brand name could not have been due to ignorance, but could have been justified by a desire to gain an advantage in the market due to the reputation of a competitor. The amount of 500 thousand rubles. It is small enough for the courts to actually make efforts to reduce it, especially in the absence of a response from the defendant, and provide some arguments on his part why the court should reduce the claims. The probability of successfully challenging a court decision in such a situation looks low," the expert believes.

Source: RBC