Stamps instead of: Reserved and Sinsay in Cyrillic are registered in Russia
Polish clothing brands Reserved, Sinsay and others may "return" to Russia. Re Trading, which previously operated Russian stores owned by the LPP Group (including House, Mohito and Cropp), has applied for trademark registration of Polish Cyrillic names of the same name — Reservved, Sinsei, House, Mojito and Kropp, according to Rospatent extracts. which were reviewed by Izvestia. In this way, the company is trying to regain consumer trust and boost sales through recognizable brands, experts say. Whether to expect the return of the European retailer is in the Izvestia article.
Which European brands may return to Russia
Re Trading, which previously operated Russian stores owned by the LPP Group (Reserved, House, Cropp, Mohito and Sinsay), has applied for registration of trademarks of the Polish brands of the same name in Cyrillic — "Reservved", "Sinsay", "House", "Mojito" and "Kropp". This is stated in the materials of Rospatent, which was reviewed by Izvestia. The Russian company has registered trademarks for the 35th and 25th classes of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICTS) - clothing marketing and sales. The editorial board sent a request to the organization.
The trademarks Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay were protected and registered in favor of LPP S.A. long before the start of the special operation in Ukraine, an LPP representative reminded Izvestia. The Group is unaware that the new owner has registered trademarks identical to the Polish company on the territory of the Russian Federation, he noted.
LPP is one of the largest fashion retailers in Central and Eastern Europe. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Gdansk. The business geography covers more than 40 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The retail network has more than 2.8 thousand stores. The portfolio includes five brands: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay. The company's shares are traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
How the company left the market
In March 2022, LPP closed its stores in the country, suspended investments in the local market and stopped the supply of products to the Russian Federation. In May of the same year, the group announced the sale of its Russian subsidiary, Re Trading, to a Chinese consortium of investors, Fes Retail. Later, he rebranded the Russian stores: Reserved became Re, Cropp became Cr, Mohito became M, House became XC, and Sinsay became Sin.
This transaction did not grant the buyer the right to register or use trademarks owned by LPP S.A., its representative recalled. According to him, only during the 12-month transition period did Re Trading have the right to sell goods previously ordered for the Russian market and already labeled with LPP brands. With the exception of this case, the investors and the company did not have and do not have the right to use these trademarks, said the representative of the Polish organization.
LPP would like to return to Russia, according to two Izvestia sources familiar with its plans. According to one of them, the key obstacle for the retailer today is the "tense political situation." Before the start of the SVR, the Russian market was the largest for the company after Poland, he added. At the same time, it is impossible to talk about the return of the retailer in the foreseeable future, says Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics. Especially against the background of the problems that LPP had in the spring of 2024 in connection with accusations of a "fake" sale of a business in Russia, he noted.
So, in March 2024, the investment research organization Hindenburg Research published a report in which it claimed that the Polish company had not completely left the Russian Federation. According to the investigators, Fes Retail was registered in Dubai the day before LPP announced a deal to sell the Russian business. A former top manager of the Polish company, whose name was not specified, called the deal a cover for the truth that the Russian business was not sold, and the retailer's enterprises in the country are "directly controlled by the headquarters and the board of directors of LPP." At the same time, the retailer called this report "part of an organized disinformation attack" in order to reduce the company's capitalization on the stock exchange.
The importance of the brand for customers
For consumers, the brand is primarily important, not the country in which the management organization is registered, where its assets are located, and how many factories produce products worldwide, said Alexey Andreev, Vice president of the Association of Branding Companies of Russia (ABCR), managing partner of Depot. The emotional attachment of customers to specific trademarks allows them to maintain high demand for products during times of economic downturn and "consumer depression," he said. At the same time, Re Trading does not have special rights to use LPP brands, so it registers Cyrillic names with the same name as Latin ones, he explained.
The company continues to maintain trademark protection in the Russian Federation, especially given the continuation of the parallel import scheme, Mikhail Burmistrov believes. According to him, Cyrillic versions of names are usually registered to minimize the risks of their registration by so-called patent trolls.
Re Trading made an attempt to acquire the rights to Cyrillic-language brands for itself after the Polish company left the market, said Maria Moish, senior associate at Verba Legal and trademark patent attorney. At the same time, Latin trademarks owned by LPP are still protected in Russia, she pointed out. Therefore, it is highly likely that Rospatent will refuse to register Cyrillic trademarks for the organization, because they are similar to previously registered trademarks of a Polish company in Latin, the lawyer believes. Otherwise, LPP will be able to challenge such a decision, referring to the priority of its previously registered trademarks. At the same time, a challenge on this basis is possible only within five years from the date of registration of the mark, she added.
In March 2026, a law comes into force that sets out the requirements for the Russification of signage and inscriptions in trade, Mikhail Burmistrov noted. He clarified that the document does not contain a direct requirement to translate brand names and trademarks. At the same time, the return of the old store names will sound and look "more convincing" to the buyer on the signs than the current RE, M or Sin, Alexey Andreev believes.
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