A foreign company - manufacturer of counterfeit products (Guangdong Funway Food Co., Ltd.) - filed a lawsuit with the Russian IP Court claiming early termination of legal protection of the «СЮРПРИЗ» trademark (the right holder is our client, Ferrero S.p.A) due to its non-use in relation to confectionery products. Earlier we had disputes with that company on bringing to administrative liability the importer of products labeled «SURPRISE FOR PRINCESS».
The requirements of the plaintiff were based on the fact that when introducing confectionery products into civil circulation, the client uses other trademarks, namely «Киндер СЮРПРИЗ» and «Kinder SURPRISE», and the «СЮРПРИЗ» trademark is not used and has no independent meaning.
Due to our strong position, the IP Court agreed with all our arguments, recognized the fact of using the disputed trademark as proven and refused to satisfy the claim of the plaintiff.
The client was represented before the Court by Senior Partner Irina Ozolina and Associate Julia Kolomytseva.
To find more information about the case, please follow the link.