Supreme Court Lets Stand Earlier Ruling in Favor of Lesaffre

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation left unchanged the Presidium of the IP Court’s decision in favor of Sojuzpatent’s client – Lesaffre et Compagnie.

As reported earlier, Sojuzpatent’s lawyers have successfully defended the interests of the French company Lesaffre et Compagnie, one of the world leaders in the production of yeast and other fermentation products, in a trademark cancellation case. The disputed trademark prevented the registration of our client's trademark in the territory of Russia.

The court of first instance ruled to cancel the disputed trademark in part. However, as a result of the professional actions of Sojuzpatent lawyers, the Presidium of the IP Court fully satisfied the claims and terminated the legal protection of the opposing trademark in relation to the entire list of goods, which allowed our client to exercise their right to register the designation in Russia.

The opposite party filed an appeal to the The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The judge of the Supreme Court agreed with the position of the IP Court Presidium, which had established that the use of a trademark in a significantly modified form (transliteration in Cyrillic of a trademark registered in Latin), i.e. in a form that changes its distinctiveness cannot be considered the use in the sense of Article 1486 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Therefore, the transfer of the appeal for consideration in the court session of the Collegium for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation was refused.