Illegal use of a trademark: Cherkizovo demands more than 120 million rubles from the Chelyabinsk company

The Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region accepted the claim of the Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant against the Ariant agricultural firm on violation of the exclusive rights to the Borodinskaya trademark. According to the case file, Cherkizovo asks to ban the Chelyabinsk agricultural holding from using the designation "Borodinskaya" to individualize goods and services, since it is identical to the trademark "Borodinskaya" according to certificate No. 263638. In addition, the Moscow company requires the recovery of 120.2 million rubles from the defendant as compensation for infringement of exclusive trademark rights.

Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant registered the right to the Borodinskaya trademark in 2004. The exclusive right expires in January 2032. Cherkizovo and Ariant produced raw smoked sausage under this name.

This year Cherkizovo has filed more than a dozen lawsuits for the protection of trademark rights in arbitration courts in different regions of Russia, as well as in the court for intellectual property rights. Respondents are manufacturers of meat products. The largest compensation is 1.5 billion rubles filed within the framework of one lawsuit by Ishim Meat Processing Plant LLC (Tyumen Region) and Instamart Service LLC (Moscow).

Experts believe that Ariant has a chance to receive claims from the owners of Cherkizovo, but small one. “The presence of a registered trademark presumes the possibility of possessing an exclusive right to belong to certain goods and services. The defendant may challenge the legal protection of the mark in the Chamber of Patent Disputes, referring to the fact that the alleged features characterize a dangerous type of goods or have entered the general use of goods of a certain type. However, even in the event of a successful challenge, there is still a need for treatment during the time that the right to a trademark is valid, ” says Gleb Sitnikov, lawyer at the partner bureau Yurlov and Partners.

According to Sergey Zuykov, managing partner of Zuykov and partners, it will be quite difficult to challenge the protection of the Borodinskaya trademark. “If for these flour products it is obvious that it is clearly associated with the designation of sorted bread, that it is registered as a trademark, then for sausages, sausage products, the word “Borodino” does not have such an established associative connection, so I see no reason for cancellation sign," the expert said.

Source: Kommersant Publishing House