Opposition against Russian trademark application

How can I oppose another party’s Russian trademark application?

The Russian Trademark and Patent Office conducts examination on “relative” grounds for refusal regarding trademark applications. Therefore, the examiner may, at his or her discretion, reject a conflicting application on the basis of its similarity with your trademark.

However, if you want to ensure that the examiner does not miss conflicting marks, you have an opportunity to file a statement setting forth arguments against the pending trademark application. In accordance with Russian law, such arguments should be taken into account by the examiner.

Any individual can file such an opposition against a pending trademark application. The filing party is not notified about the outcome of the consideration, and there are no intra-party hearings. It is not possible to suspend or revoke the opposition. This may be the reason why the mechanism is sometimes called “informal opposition” although it is, in fact, quite formal and provided for by federal law.

The opposition should be filed before a decision on the application is issued. Therefore, there is no deadline for filing such observations, but we recommend doing so as soon as possible. Once the trademark is registered, the revocation procedure will consume more time and resources than the so-called informal opposition.