Luigi Poddi is suing pizzerias in Chelyabinsk that are using his brand name

The Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk region has registered a lawsuit by Luigi Poddi, the owner of the Poddi Pizza pizzeria chain, against an individual entrepreneur Galina Nikitina. The applicant demands that the Pronto pizza establishment stop calling the eight-pointed pizza Lipen with cheese sides and cherry tomatoes in the menu and advertising. This trademark belongs to the plaintiff, it was registered in June 2021 and is protected until 2031. If the court satisfies the claim, the defendant will be obliged to comply with the requirements within 30 days. Otherwise, there will be a penalty in the amount of 5 thousand rubles for every day until Pronto pizza stops using the controversial means of individualization. Mr. Poddi also plans to recover 787 thousand rubles from Galina Nikitina for violation of exclusive rights. 

Luigi Poddi considers the eight-pointed Lipen pizza with different fillings, in the corners of which curd cheese and cherry tomatoes are baked, to be his intellectual property. The official website of the Pronto Pizza chain says that the pizza was named after the Lipen pizzeria, where pizza chef Luigi Poddi worked before moving to Russia. 

Luigi Poddi submitted a request for registration of the Lipen trademark in 2021, after launching his own project, he was entered into the Rospatent register in March 2022. In 2023-2024, Mr. Poddi sued the owner of the Mozzarella trattoria in Chelyabinsk, Gaetano Dzambito. As a result, they entered into a settlement agreement, the defendant stopped using the Lipen trademark, changed the pizza recipe and pledged to pay for copyright infringement. 

Luigi Poddi has every chance of another victory in the arbitration case for the protection of his trademark Lipen. "Lipen is a registered trademark owned by Luigi Poddi. The legislation expressly prohibits the use of this or a confusingly similar trademark without the permission of the copyright holder. Obviously, if Galina Nikitina uses a word similar to a trademark in the name of a pizza, she will have to stop such use and pay compensation in the amount established by the court, since this violates the rights of the copyright holder, who, apparently, did not give his permission to use the trademark belonging to him",— notes Sergey Zuykov, patent attorney and managing partner of Zuykov and partners.

At the same time, Mr. Poddi cannot prohibit other cafes from baking eight-pointed pizza, Sergei Zuykov believes. "As for the manufacture of eight-pointed pizza, this requirement raises a lot of questions, without an answer to which it is extremely difficult to assume the outcome of the case. Luigi Poddi claims to protect the eight-pointed pizza as an object of copyright. But it is obvious that copyright does not and cannot protect all possible variants of eight-pointed pizzas. Like any creative work, the octagonal pizza from Galina Nikitina can be an independent work created in parallel with Luigi Poddi. In this case, the court will refuse to protect the right of the Italian entrepreneur. But if the court finds that the defendant makes pizza imitating Luigi Poddi's pizza, then the claim will be satisfied. Galina Nikitina will be banned from making eight—pointed pizza and will be obliged to pay compensation," the expert comments.

Source: Kommersant