Sports lotteries are fighting for the trademark "National lottery"

Rospatent refused to register the mark on March 30, 2023. The conclusion states that the claimed designation cannot be registered because it does not have "distinguishing ability, since it consists of unprotected elements," namely "national" and "lottery".

It is noted that Rospatent has already registered the trademarks "National Reserve", "National Present", as well as "Gosloto — the main lottery of the country". At the same time, Sports Lotteries LLC distributes the "National Lottery" organized by the Ministry of Finance.

There has already been a similar dispute between another lottery operator and Rospatent: Rospatent refused Stoloto to register the Scratch lotto trademark due to the fact that the words do not have a distinctive ability. At the moment, the complaint against the verdict of the Intellectual Property Court has reached the Supreme Court, but the decision on the case has not yet been made.

Lawyers believe that the lottery operator's arguments may turn against him.

"Since any lottery in Russia is regulated by law and can only be organized by the government, the phrase "national lottery" is applicable to all lottery companies, therefore it cannot be registered for one person, any participant in this market has the right to use it," explains Anastasia Snopkova, a lawyer at BGP Litigation. In this regard, she believes, the plaintiff's arguments that he is connected with the state do not matter.

The company may think about a new name for its lottery, believes Sergey Zuykov, patent attorney, managing partner of Zuykov and partners: "Or it will continue to use the old one, which also does not contradict the law, but at the same time without trademark registration."

Source: Kommersant Publishing House