It seems that starting your own business on. The Internet is easy: choose a niche, register a website… and go. But in reality, everything is different – to stand out from competitors. You ne to come up with an original name and register a trademark. Our colleagues from Online Patent told us why every entrepreneur. Should have one and what are the risks of not having one.
What Can Go Wrong When Choosing a Brand Nam
ifficulties may arise at the stage of choosing a brand. At any moment it may turn out that the trademark you are using has already been register with Rospatent by a competitor. There are many such examples in judicial practice, here are some of them:
The entrepreneurs us
The Botanika brand on their website and social mia. The copyright holder, having register this trademark with Rospatent back in 2017, fil a lawsuit, demanding compensation and the removal of the illegally us designation. The third branch of government agre with these demands: the businessmen did not check the brand before using it, so they had to change the name (Decision of August 19, 2022, case No. A65-3232/2022 ). They also had to pay significant compensation.
Other entrepreneurs decid to sell Armaseti products and register a similar name and domain name. The copyright holders did not like this and went to court. The defendants were prohibit from using the designation in the domain name and were fin 400 thousand rubles (Decision of June 28, 2022, case No. A64-1709/2022 ).
Where to check the brand
You can check whether a brand exists on the website of the Online Patent company. It is free, and if you have any questions, you can write to the company’s support – specialists will help you understand the search results.
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When checking, take into account the class of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICGS) – a specializ classifier of goods and services, by which you can determine the type of activity of any entrepreneur. You can do this here.
Why is this important?
Let’s give an example. Let’s say you produce print products. This means you work in class 16 of the International Classification of Goods and Services. This class is the main one for you. Therefore, you ne to register a trademark first of all in it, and not, say, in class 15 (musical instruments) or class 17 (rubber).
No. You ne to check all the brands that will be present on your site
For example, you purchase goods for resale from intermiaries. Do they have the appropriate powers grant by the copyright holder? If not, and you post the purchas goods on the website, the brand owner has the right to sue you, and you will have to refuse the goods and pay compensation. The courts satisfy such claims without any problems (Resolution of November 28, 2022 in case No. A73-2976/2022 ).
A practical example. The company went to court because the firm sold heating devices on the Internet under a brand that was confusingly similar . All courts agre with the plaintiff’s arguments, imposing a fine of 500 thousand rubles on the offender (Resolution of the Intellectual Property Court of July 26, 2018 No. С01-569/2018 in case No. А70-15306/2017 ).
What happens if you don’t check the brand in time
If you do not check the permit for trading brand goods in time, you can be su at any time, and this can result in an administrative protocol and even a criminal charge.
The case is initiat under Article 14.10 of the Code of the Russian Feration on Administrative Offenses. A financial penalty is impos upon confirm evidence indicating actual expenses and losses caus to the copyright holder (Recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council “Issues Relat to the Application of Legislation on Administrative Offenses”, minutes of the Presidium meeting dat 08.02.2018 N 1).
Criminal liability may be impos if the phone number my amount of damage is higher than 250 thousand rubles or if you have violat court requirements several times. For example, if you have already been fin for reselling goods without the permission of the trademark owner.
You may also be of interest to the FAS, the Feral Antimonopoly Service, which monitors that market participants do not violate market legislation. If FAS specialists notice that your actions contain signs of bad faith (this is how “brand confusion” is classifi), they can initiate a case under Article 14.6 of the Feral Law “On Protection of Competition” .
If you notice that someone is using your register trademark
The copyright holder conducts create a safe space where team a test purchase, recording everything on video camera. In addition, the website pages with the problematic products are inspect by a notary, who draws up a special act confirming that at a certain time, goods with the disput designation were post on a certain domain. This evidence is difficult to refute in court ( Decision of June 20, 2019 in case No. A45-9353/2019 ).
Let’s sum it up Before starting a business:
Check the name you want to use. If your brand is the same as an already register trademark, you can be su at any time.
Obtain official consent from the copyright holder or dealer. If you plan to resell the goods, first check that the suppliers have consent to sell the products.
Register your brand. This can be done in Online Patent – the company’s specialists will help you fill out all the documents correctly and register your trademark “turnkey”. And if someone has encroach on your intellectual property, they will help protect it.
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