Our client's («TWINS TEC») competitor brought a product to the market in a packaging similar to the packaging produced by our client. To minimize the liability risks an affiliate of a competitor filed an application for an industrial design for one of the packagings. On October 15, 2019, «TWINS TEC» filed an invalidation action regarding that industrial design. Partners of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm Irina Ozolina and Aleksey Zalesov represented the client's interests. Rospatent agreed with the arguments of our associates and the patent was considered invalid. The patent owner disputed the mentioned decision in the Russian IP Court. Such issues were disputed as what should be considered as an independent part of the product, what should be considered as the closest analog, in which cases the exclusion of analog features would lead to the originality of the new sample, and in which cases it would not. The first instance court ruled in favor of our client and upheld the decision of Rospatent.
The applicant filed a cassation appeal with the Presidium of the Russian IP Court. On March 22, 2021, the Presidium confirmed the decision of the IP Court of November 20, 2020, and rejected the cassation appeal. The IP Court confirmed that the choice of an analog should be guided by images rather than by verbal descriptions of features and that the exclusion of features from the analog itself does not create an original new solution with the creative pattern as well as a simple change of color. Find out more about the case.