“Zuykov and Partners” defended the right to the trademark “PLATINUM LINE” in the Intellectual Property Court

In 2015, “LIERRE INVESTSMENTS LIMITED” (hereinafter – “Lierre”), whose interests have been represented by “Zuykov and Partners”, filed an application for registration of the verbal trademark “PLATINUM LINE” for goods of class 31 of the ICGS.

In December 2016, following the results of the examination, the specialists of the Russian Patent Office decided to register this means of individualization.

In February 2019, “Platinum GmbH & Co KG” (hereinafter – “Platinum”) filed an objection to Rospatent against granting legal protection to the “Lierre” trademark. The basis for the appeal was the opinion of “Platinum” representatives that legal protection of the designation was provided in violation of the requirements established by Paragraphs 3 and 6 of Article 1483 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

On August 26, 2019, Rospatent experts considered the objection, concluded that the stated claims were unlawful, and decided to dismiss the objection to the granting of legal protection to the “PLATINUM LINE” trademark.

“Platinum” was not satisfied with such decision of Rospatent, and the company filed a statement of claim with the Intellectual Property Court with a request to invalidate the decision of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property. The claims were based on the alleged illegality of the adopted act and the assertion of confusingly similar between the plaintiff's designation:“Platinum” and “Lierre” trademark: “PLATINUM LINE”. Representatives of “Lierre” were involved in process as a third party.

The lawyers of “Zuykov and Partners” did not agree with the arguments of “Platinum” and in their response to the statement of claim, presented a motivated position indicating that there was no confusingly similarity between designations when compared by phonetic, semantic and graphical criteriа.

On August 12, 2020, during the proceeding, the Intellectual Property Court considered the statement of claim, concluded that the stated requirements were unreasonable and decided to uphold the decision of Rospatent and the effect of the “PLATINUM LINE” trademark.