Rospatent refused to grant protection to the trademark of the client of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm - MCCM USA, INC. claiming that the figurative element of the designation is similar to the emblem of The International Committee of the Red Cross and referring to the presence of an earlier registration recognized as similar to the claimed designation.
Our experts successfully overcame the opposition of an earlier trademark by referring to an earlier conventional priority of the client’s application.
To prove the absence of similarity between the claimed designation and the Red Cross emblem we filed an invalidation action with the Chamber for Patent Disputes regarding the refusal in grant of protection to the trademark.
Despite having claimed the absence of the similarity, we filed an application for changing the set of colors in the designation (the red color was excluded) which was satisfied and thus the only ground for refusal in grant as of the moment of filing an opposition was eliminated. Some other arguments were produced including reference to the practice (including court decisions) of registering trademarks containing elements in the form of two crossing lines.
On June 30, 2022, the Chamber for Patent Disputes ruled to grant protection to the combined trademark under application No. 2020741305 in the territory of the Russian Federation.
Senior Partner Irina Ozolina and Head of the Trademark Group of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Anastasia Kiriukhina represented the client in the dispute.