AB Lawyers team has analyzed the most popular grounds for refusal of trademark registration and hereby brings to your attention 5 most common mistakes in choosing a trademark.
The information below relies on the Intellectual Property Court and Rospatent's documents, references to which are given shortly afterwards.
1.SURNAME
Mistake: Most surnames are not unique, identical surnames belong to dozens of people who may be busy with similar economic activities. This mistake has become the reason for refusal of the following trademarks registration: «Kulikov», «Shevtsov.ru», «Alexander Sveshnikov», «Alexandr Volkov».
One may falsely use a surname of a famous person to whom the applicant has no connection as a trademark, for example, «V Rubel» or «Dzhanelidze». Such a trademark is very unlikely to be registered for misleading consumers.
We recommend:
2.COMBINATION OF CONSONANT LETTERS
Mistake: The combination of consonant letters is by default not of a verbal nature and cannot fulfil the main purpose of a trademark - to provide distinctiveness of the goods or services of manufacturers, e.g. «CHBTKV», «VSDC».
We recommend:
3.PACKAGING IS NOT A TRADEMARK
Mistake: Companies apply for registration of packaging or shape of a product as a trademark rather than an industrial design. Only distinguished market leaders can obtain registration, for ex. the Tic Tac, which has been famous for decades.
We recommend: if the packaging or the product shape is not so recognizable among consumers, it would be more prudent to place an original word or picture on it.
4.TRADEMARK = CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PRODUCT
Mistake: The word «juice» does not distinguish one juice from another. Usage of the product characteristics, purpose of the goods, as well as the production place, has resulted in undesirable refusal of a trademark registration for beer «Мягкий Солод» («Myagkij Solod»), for cheesecakes and cheese «Московский сырник» («Moskovskiy Syrnik»), for pâtés «NAMAZKA».
We recommend: to combine main elements of the trademark with descriptive words or pictures as secondary elements realizing that they may fall out of legal protection. The main elements should never indicate the type, characteristics, purpose of the goods/services.
5.VIRAL PROVOCATION
Mistake: not every unique wording or a design will be approved by the public, and some are even capable of causing public dislike, for ex. «SHPILI-WILI», «INFOCYGAN», «ANALgin», the letters «z» and «v» - as military symbols.
We recommend: never use breaking bad wordings and designs.
PS. We are in for the 30% increase of the trademark registration fees. One should choose an accurate trademark to effectively protect your business.
1.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/cafb8ced-704f-4ba0-af23-132df437f6a2/2ee6051c-f208-4a01-85f5-3b028c8a68ef/SIP-510-2023_20230731_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
2.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/d8144b0b-1bbb-4885-9a49-ed64ddf8ffa7/dd19d83d-831e-463e-a3d1-370ae02aa277/SIP-963-2023_20231219_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
3.https://www.fips.ru/pps/21_04_23/2022%D0%9203255.pdf
4.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/a45e480e-e3b9-46cf-a9f8-2e8acba6bb42/22929943-22a2-4346-b56f-9cbbb39e2eec/SIP-911-2022_20230522_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
5.https://www.fips.ru/pps/06_03_23/2022%D0%9202950.pdf
6.https://www.fips.ru/pps/26_06_23/2023%D0%9200770.pdf
7.https://www.fips.ru/pps/15_09_23/2023%D0%9201443.pdf
8.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/98f98d2a-830b-4d2f-b55e-39487f147bfb/131a24e1-277f-48d0-9081-074cb346d35a/SIP-498-2023_20240212_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
9.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/eedd85de-d5f1-4b5c-ac13-4eeb39a2dbba/1a8bdd27-880b-43ea-a1c7-c945c2b0498e/SIP-860-2019_20200220_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
10.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/e0635dce-f568-4236-8781-7e2571ed0e5e/408ba5c4-48f5-407d-9b3e-4ab537c2087e/SIP-1392-2023_20240508_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
The information below relies on the Intellectual Property Court and Rospatent's documents, references to which are given shortly afterwards.
1.SURNAME
Mistake: Most surnames are not unique, identical surnames belong to dozens of people who may be busy with similar economic activities. This mistake has become the reason for refusal of the following trademarks registration: «Kulikov», «Shevtsov.ru», «Alexander Sveshnikov», «Alexandr Volkov».
One may falsely use a surname of a famous person to whom the applicant has no connection as a trademark, for example, «V Rubel» or «Dzhanelidze». Such a trademark is very unlikely to be registered for misleading consumers.
We recommend:
- to pre-check the surname using any available public sources for prevalence and whether or not the person is widely known. For example, you can use www.nalog.ru, https://rfpoisk.ru/search/?search,
- to be willing to convincingly prove the acquired distinctiveness of the surname.
2.COMBINATION OF CONSONANT LETTERS
Mistake: The combination of consonant letters is by default not of a verbal nature and cannot fulfil the main purpose of a trademark - to provide distinctiveness of the goods or services of manufacturers, e.g. «CHBTKV», «VSDC».
We recommend:
- to create original graphics with consonant letters using colour and stylistic designs, in that case the letters will be perceived as a unique pictorial composition and will be eligible for legal protection,
- to come up with an abbreviation and decode it in words so that it does not overlap with known abbreviations from official reference books. A good example: «KVN» - Klub Vesyolykh i Nakhodchivykh (Club of the Funny and Inventive [people]).
3.PACKAGING IS NOT A TRADEMARK
Mistake: Companies apply for registration of packaging or shape of a product as a trademark rather than an industrial design. Only distinguished market leaders can obtain registration, for ex. the Tic Tac, which has been famous for decades.
We recommend: if the packaging or the product shape is not so recognizable among consumers, it would be more prudent to place an original word or picture on it.
4.TRADEMARK = CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PRODUCT
Mistake: The word «juice» does not distinguish one juice from another. Usage of the product characteristics, purpose of the goods, as well as the production place, has resulted in undesirable refusal of a trademark registration for beer «Мягкий Солод» («Myagkij Solod»), for cheesecakes and cheese «Московский сырник» («Moskovskiy Syrnik»), for pâtés «NAMAZKA».
We recommend: to combine main elements of the trademark with descriptive words or pictures as secondary elements realizing that they may fall out of legal protection. The main elements should never indicate the type, characteristics, purpose of the goods/services.
5.VIRAL PROVOCATION
Mistake: not every unique wording or a design will be approved by the public, and some are even capable of causing public dislike, for ex. «SHPILI-WILI», «INFOCYGAN», «ANALgin», the letters «z» and «v» - as military symbols.
We recommend: never use breaking bad wordings and designs.
PS. We are in for the 30% increase of the trademark registration fees. One should choose an accurate trademark to effectively protect your business.
1.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/cafb8ced-704f-4ba0-af23-132df437f6a2/2ee6051c-f208-4a01-85f5-3b028c8a68ef/SIP-510-2023_20230731_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
2.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/d8144b0b-1bbb-4885-9a49-ed64ddf8ffa7/dd19d83d-831e-463e-a3d1-370ae02aa277/SIP-963-2023_20231219_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
3.https://www.fips.ru/pps/21_04_23/2022%D0%9203255.pdf
4.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/a45e480e-e3b9-46cf-a9f8-2e8acba6bb42/22929943-22a2-4346-b56f-9cbbb39e2eec/SIP-911-2022_20230522_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
5.https://www.fips.ru/pps/06_03_23/2022%D0%9202950.pdf
6.https://www.fips.ru/pps/26_06_23/2023%D0%9200770.pdf
7.https://www.fips.ru/pps/15_09_23/2023%D0%9201443.pdf
8.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/98f98d2a-830b-4d2f-b55e-39487f147bfb/131a24e1-277f-48d0-9081-074cb346d35a/SIP-498-2023_20240212_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
9.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/eedd85de-d5f1-4b5c-ac13-4eeb39a2dbba/1a8bdd27-880b-43ea-a1c7-c945c2b0498e/SIP-860-2019_20200220_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
10.https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/e0635dce-f568-4236-8781-7e2571ed0e5e/408ba5c4-48f5-407d-9b3e-4ab537c2087e/SIP-1392-2023_20240508_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True