The lawyers of Zuykov and Partners achieved an early termination of the legal protection of the trademarks “Metropolis”

The specialists of Zuykov and Partners represented the interests of the company Kubik in the court proceedings related to an early termination of the legal protection of the trademarks.

LLC Kubik filed an application for the registration of the trademarks “МЕТРОПОЛИС” and “METROPOLIS” in respect of the services of the 35th, 36th, 37th, 39th, 41st and 43rd classes of the ICGS with Rospatent. It became clear afterwards that several organizations owned the rights to the similar designations registered in respect of the similar classes of the services. However, the grounds appeared, which allowed believing that the firms did not use the trademarks owned by them. This was the reason, why the representatives of Kubik filed a statement of claim to the court for an early termination of the legal protection of the trademarks due to their non-use.

Having studied the evidence represented and having acquainted with the circumstances of the case, the judicial authorities noted the following circumstances:

• The plaintiff is engaged in leasing the premises of the shopping center “Metropolis,” the parking places in the shopping center and in providing the services that are similar to those ones, which the right holders of the registered designations provide, and it also has the sales market and the circle of consumers, which are common  with the defendants’ ones.
• LLC Kubik Is interested in obtaining the legal protection and the use of the disputed designation, what is confirmed by filing the applications for the registration of the trademarks.
• Among other things, the company Kubik is also an administrator of the domain names “metropolis.moscow.ru” and “metropolis.center.ru,” in which the word element is confusingly similar to the claimed trademarks.
• Paragraph 3 of Article 1486 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation confers the burden of proving the use of the trademark on the right holder. The defendants did not visit the court proceedings despite the notifications forwarded appropriately. The defendant did not provide a response to the statement of claim regarding one of the cases and it did not challenge the plaintiff’s position.

As a result of the consideration of the statements of claim, the courts made two decisions:

• To satisfy partially the claims and to terminate early the legal protection of the trademark belonging to LLC Company “Metropolis” in respect of the services of the 36^th class of the ICGS.
• To satisfy fully the plaintiff’s claims in respect of the trademark of the defendant LLC Triton on an early termination of the legal protection of the trademark in respect of all services of the 39^th and 41^st classes of the ICGS due to its non-use.

Thanks to the competent actions of the lawyers of Zuykov and Partners and the court decisions made, LLC Kubik will be able now to register the designations and to become the right holder of the trademarks “МЕТРОПОЛИС” and “METROPOLIS.”