The Supreme Court did not recognize PAZ's right to the trademark PAZ

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has ruled that Pavlovsk Automobile Plant's right to its brand name PAZ is not enough to prohibit the manufacturer of collectible bus models from using the PAZ trademark. This was reported by the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI) on November 19.

The PAZ trademark was registered in October 2015 with priority from February 2014 under a number of goods, including scale models of vehicles, for the company "Skale", which is engaged in the production of collectible models of cars. Pavlovskiy Avtozavod filed an opposition to the trademark registration with Rospatent. Rospatent refused the plant because PAZ did not produce scale models of buses.

Subsequently, the Court for Intellectual Rights (CIP) refused the plant's application, stating that the goods of the bus manufacturer and the manufacturer of scaled-down models of buses are not homogeneous. The Presidium of the IP Court overturned the decision of the first instance and invalidated the decision of Rospatent. In his opinion, the licensees brought to consumers information about the brand name of the person under whose control the products are manufactured, so they had no right to register a trademark confusingly similar to the brand name, the note says.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned the decision of the Presidium of the CIP, leaving in force the ruling of the court of first instance and the decision of Rospatent. According to the court, the lack of evidence in the case materials of the use of the brand name by the car plant before the priority date of the trademark in the production of bus models (because it did not produce them) allowed Rospatent to justifiably refuse to cancel the registration of the trademark.

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