RUSSIAN TRADEMARK

Trademarks are signs capable of distinguishing goods and services, respectively, of a certain person or legal entity from similar goods and services of other natural persons or legal entities. Owner of a trademark shall have the exclusive right to use and dispose of the trademark and to prevent others from using the trademark. Any use of a sign or a name similar to a trademark for similar shall entail civil or criminal responsibility under the law of the Russian Federation.

Word, figurative, three-dimensional, or other signs or their combinations may be registered as trademark. Trademark may be registered in any color or combination of colors.

Trademarks shall not be registered if they consist only of signs:

• that do not have a distinguishing capacity
• that are commonplace to designate goods of a certain kind
• that are generally adopted symbols and terms
• that point to the kind, quality, quantity, properties, application, value of goods and the place and time of their manufacture or sale
• that represent State armorial bearings, flags or emblems, official names of States, emblems, abbreviated or full names of international intergovernmental organizations, official signs and hallmarks of control and warranty, seals, awards and other distinguishing signs or signs confusingly similar to them

Signs will not be registered as trademarks or their elements that are misleading or capable of confusing consumers in respect of a good or its manufacturer. Also, shall not be registered as trademarks if they are identical or confusingly similar to:

• trademarks earlier registered or applied for registration in the Russian Federation in the name of another person in respect of similar goods
• trademarks of other persons, protected without registration by virtue of international treaties to which the Russian Federation is a party
• firm names, known in the territory of the Russian Federation belonging to other persons granted the right to such firm names before the filing date of an application relating to similar good
• industrial designs the rights to which belong to other persons in the Russian Federation
• titles of works of science, literature and art, characters or quotations from them, works of art or their fragments known in the Russian Federation without the consent of a copyright owner or his successor in title
• family names, first names, pseudonyms and their derivatives, portraits and facsimile of famous persons without the consent of such persons