You have a trademark. What's next?

You have become the owner of a trademark in the territory of Russia. As it is said in Russia: “Now you can sleep without worries”, because your brand is under protection. But…

Have you ever asked yourself is your trademark registration really efficient? Do you know that you can “lose” your trademark at any time?

Unfortunately, this is true.

A threat of a trademark “losing”.

The first threat, you can face with, is the preterm trademark annulment in case if the trademark was not used for any 3 years period from the trademark registration. The application for a trademark annulment can be filed by any person, interested in it, to the Chamber of Patent Disputes. The right holder must prove the use of his trademark by himself. The legal protection can be stopped if there were no evidence or the presented evidence was not enough.

The practice of such “attacks” increases every day in Russia. Incomplete or incorrect use of a trademark on the territory of Russia can become a reason of the trademark annulment. You must watch carefully your trademark use and take the necessary measures to avoid this. 

Making alterations of the trademark registration at impropriate time is another reason for the trademark annulment. If alterations in the name or the address of the right holder are not made for the Certificate in time, the Chamber of Patent Disputes is not able to find the right holder abroad; as a result the trademark can be annulled.

But there are also other threats for the legal protection of your trademark rights.

The “holes” in the Nice Classification.

You do not have the full protection of your rights, if the trademark classification was not complete. For example, not all similar goods and services were included at the procedure of filing the application to the Patent Office.  Furthermore, the Patent Office can restrict classes of goods and services at the stage of the trademark registration. Another threat can be caused by producing and exporting new goods and services, that are not mentioned in the Certificate registered before, to Russia.

In these cases your trademark becomes “weak” or absolutely inefficient to combat with unfair competition. That’s why it is very important to have the recurrent analysis of the legal protection carried out.

It is not enough just to have a trademark registration; you should always keep it up to date according to the Russian court practice.  It is very important to watch constantly the way a trademark is used in Russia during its “life”, watch all changes of registration and take measures for most efficient trademark protection.

We offer you to carry out the trademark audit to have a complete watch of the necessary alterations and give recommendations about the efficient trademark protection in time. By filing the form for audit services, our Patent Attorneys provide you a report on condition of legal protection.

According to this information we will be able to carry out the maintenance and the further legal protection more efficiently.