– Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, effective since January 1, 2008, amended as of June 13, 2023.
– The Administrative Regulations for rendering by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the public service of state registration of trademarks, service marks, collective marks and issuance of certificates for trademarks, service marks, collective marks and duplicate certificates for the same, effective since September 12, 2015, amended as of July 7, 2017.
– The Administrative Regulations for rendering by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the public service for acknowledging a trademark or a designation used as a well-known trademark in the Russian Federation, effective since October 13, 2015, amended as of June 7, 2017.
– The Administrative Regulations for rendering by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the public service for extending the effect of the exclusive rights to trademarks, service marks, collective marks, effective July 19, 2021.
– The Administrative Regulations for rendering by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the public service for early cancellation of a trademark, service mark, well-known trademark, trademark recognized as valid in the Russian Federation under International treaty, exclusive right to a geographical indication or an appellation of origin on the ground of a request of any person except the right owner because of liquidation of a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur, effective since November 14, 2020.
– The Administrative Regulations for rendering by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the public service for recording changes in the State Registers of trademarks, service marks, well-known trademarks, geographical indications and appellations of origin and for entering amendments in the Certificates of the same, effective since October 12, 2020, amended as of December 23, 2020.
– The Rules on consideration and resolving by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of disputes in the course of an administrative procedure, effective since September 6, 2020.
– Order No. 482 of July 20, 2015 of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation approving Rules on the drafting, filing and examination of applications for the registration of trademarks and service marks, effective since August 31, 2015, amended as of November 23, 2020.

– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act, since July 1, 1965.
– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since April 26, 1970.
– Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, since July 26, 1971.
– Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, Stockholm Act, since July 1, 1976.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), in force since May 31, 1992.
– Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, since June 10, 1997.
– Trademark Law Treaty, since May 11, 1998.
– Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, since December 18, 2009.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since August 22, 2012.

Applicant: a legal entity or a natural person (as of June 29, 2023).

Foreigners as applicants: foreign citizens, organizations and businesses can obtain trademark registration in the Russian Federation. They must appoint a patent agent registered with the Patent and Trademark Office of the Russian Federation.

Notion: a trademark and a service mark is a designation distinguishing products and services of some producers from similar products and services of other producers. 

Kinds of trademarks: verbal, pictorial, three-dimensional and other designations or their combination. 

Service marks: registrable. 

Collective trademarks: registrable.

Trademarks in color: a trademark filed for registration in color is registered and protected in the same color. A trademark submitted for registration without an indication as to color is registered in black and white and may be used in any color provided it does not copy a similar mark registered in a specified color. 

Novelty: the trademark applied for must not conflict with a trademark already registered or filed for registration.

Absolute grounds for denying registration: (1) no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations lacking distinctiveness or comprising only the following elements: (a) commonly used elements to denote goods of a certain kind; (b) elements that belong to commonly accepted symbols and terms; (c) elements characterizing goods, including those indicating to type, quality, properties, purpose, value of said goods and also indicating to time, place, method of the manufacture or sale thereof; (d) elements representing a form of goods which is defined solely or mostly by properties or a purpose of said goods. Such elements may be included in a trademark as disclaimed elements, unless they are dominant elements in the trademark. Provisions of this paragraph do not apply to those designations that acquired their distinctiveness resulting from use thereof or if they comprise unprotectable elements forming together a combination exhibiting the distinctiveness; (2) in accordance with international treaty of the Russian Federation, no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations comprising only the following elements representing: (a) national emblems, national flags, and other state power symbols and signs; (b) abbreviated or full names of international and intergovernmental organizations, their respective emblems, flags, other symbols and signs; (c) official check marks, guarantee seals or hall marks, official seals, awards, and other marks of distinction; (d) designations confusingly similar to those elements specified in sub-items (a)-(c) of this paragraph. Such elements may be included in trademarks as unprotected elements, if approved by a corresponding appropriate authority; (3) no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations representing or comprising the following elements: (a) false elements or elements capable to mislead consumers as to marked goods or a manufacturer thereof or as of May 29, 2023 place of manufacture; (b) elements contrary to public interests, humanity principles and morals; (4) no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations that are confusingly similar to official names and images of extremely valuable items of cultural or heritage of the nations of the Russian Federation or world cultural or environmental heritage, and also confusingly similar to images of cultural valuables deposited in collections, holdings, and stocks, if trademark registration is claimed in the name of registrants not belonging to owners of said valuables, without consent of owners or those persons authorized by owners to register such claimed designations as a trademark; (5) in accordance with international treaty of the Russian Federation, no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations representing or comprising elements that are protected in one of the countries enjoying membership in such international treaty as marks allowing to identify wines or alcoholic beverages originating from the territory of such country (produced within geographical borders of said country) and having a special quality, reputation, or other qualities mostly defined by origin, if a trademark is intended to denote wines or alcoholic beverages not originating from this geographical object. Other grounds for denying registration: (6) no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations that are identical or confusingly similar to: (a) trademarks of other parties claimed for registration with respect to similar goods with earlier priority, unless application for state registration of a trademark is withdrawn or found withdrawn or this application is refused in protection; (b) trademarks of other parties under protection in the Russian Federation, including those under protection of international treaties of the Russian Federation, with respect to similar goods with earlier priority; (c) trademarks of other parties found in accordance with an order established by the Civil Code as trademarks well-known in the Russian Federation with respect to similar goods. Registration as a trademark for similar products of a designation which is confusingly similar to any trademarks specified in the present paragraph shall be allowed only upon an owner’s consent, and such consent cannot be withdrawn by the owner, provided that registration of claimed designation cannot be a reason for misleading the consumers. A letter of consent cannot be accepted in the event of citation of collective marks; (7) as of May 29, 2023 (a) no designations shall be registered as a trademark in respect of the similar goods if they include, reproduce or imitate geographical indications or appellations of origin of goods protected under the Civil Code, as well as designations applied for registration as such before the priority date of a trademark in respect of the similar goods for individualization, except for the case when such designation is included as a non-protected element in the trademark registered in the name of the person or company, who has the right to use such geographical indications or appellations of origin of goods; (b) no designations shall be registered as a trademark with respect to dissimilar goods if they include, reproduce or imitate the geographic indications or appellations of origin of goods protected under the Civil Code, as well as the designations submitted for the registration as such before the priority date of a trademark with respect to dissimilar goods, if the use of this trademark with respect to the indicated goods will associate the consumers with such geographic indications or appellations of origin of goods and may infringe the legitimate interests of the owner of the exclusive right to such geographical indication or appellation of origin; (8) no designations shall be registered as a trademark with respect to any goods if they are identical or confusingly similar to trade names or commercial names (separate elements of said names) under protection in the Russian Federation or names of breeding achievement registered with State Register of protectable breeding achievements with ownership rights of a third party to such breeding achievements dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered; (9) no designations shall be registered as a trademark if they are identical or confusingly similar to: (a) name of a work of science, literature, or art known in the Russian Federation to date of filing application for state registration of a trademark, name of a character, or a citation from said work, an artwork or a fragment thereof, without an owner’s consent, if rights to said work are dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered; (b) name, or pseudonym, or a mark deriving therefrom, a portrait or a facsimile of a person well-known in the Russian Federation  to date of filing the trademark application, without such person’s consent or his/her successor; (c) industrial design, conformity mark, if rights to said items are dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered. Such designations shall be registrable as trademarks, provided that there is a consent from holders of earlier rights to above-said items; (10) no state registration as a trademark shall be allowed for those designations whose elements are the individualisation means of other persons similar to them to the extent of confusion, as well as the objects cited in Item (9).

Letters of consent: acceptable but not for identical trademarks, for trademarks claimed in International Class 5 and when trademark registration may become a reason for misleading the consumers. 

Priority: according to the Paris Convention, six months.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney (a scanned copy is sufficient and notarization is not required);
2. Trademark image of quality, size 8 x 8 cm if possible. If a trademark is a label it is allowed deviation from established sizes and presentation thereof in full-scale, but not larger than 1/4 of A4 page;
3. List of goods and/or services to be protected; grouped according to the International Classification of products and services;
4. Priority document (if priority is claimed);
5. For collective mark: statute of the collective mark;
6. Consent to the processing of personal data from the applicant (if the application is filed by a natural person) and/or a patent attorney.

Note: the application form has to be in the Russian language. Other documents may be filed in a foreign language, translated into Russian within two months.

Electronic filing: possible. 

Electronic signatures: are accepted.

For a change of name or address: an original extract from the Commercial Register confirming the change of name or address, legalized by Apostille.

Examination: includes a formal examination followed by an examination as to substance. The Patent and Trademark Office examines all applications received in order to establish that the contents of the application and the trademark (service mark) presented for registration comply with the requirements of Part IV of the Civil Code. The Patent and Trademark Office reserves the right to request from the applicant to submit further material to assist them in deciding whether or not to grant the registration for the trademark (service mark). If the applicant fails to submit the additional material within six months from the release date of preliminary examination results (a notification on full Provisional Refusal or partial Provisional Refusal), a final Refusal shall be issued on the trademark application with a repetition of arguments behind Provisional Refusal. The time limit for responding to Provisional Refusal is not extendible.

Divisional application: possible before the decision on the parent application is made or before the issuance of a decision made by the authority of appeals under the Patent and Trademark Office based on the results of considering an opposition against the Examining Authority’s decision on trademark registration or a refusal to register designation claimed in the original trademark application, provided that such decision was made because of the existence of an earlier identical or earlier confusingly similar mark of a third party, which is either claimed or protected in the Russian Federation. 

Application kept secret: key data on trademark application are publicly accessible.

Disclaimers: available.  

Letters of consent: are accepted under certain conditions.  

Appeal: if the applicant does not agree with the full or partial Official Action of Allowance, he may, within four months, lodge an appeal, with a statement of his reasons together with the prescribed fee, with the Patent Dispute Chamber (a Board of Appeal of the Russian Patent and Trademark Office) and thereafter before a court.  

Opposition: after publication of the trademark application in the Official Gazette, a third party is entitled to file a substantiated request not to register the pending trademark. Usually the Examining Authority takes into account such petitions and issues a provisional refusal for the pending trademark application.

Urgent registration: there is the possibility of receipt of a first Office Action issued by the Examining Authority not later than within two months, as compared to the regular period, provided that an extra fee has been paid.

Corrections and amendments: corrections and amendments to trademark applications are possible if they do not broaden the initially stated scope of claims. Applicant’s name and/or address changes are possible on trademark application phase before trademark registration date or before issuance of a refusal to effect state registration thereof.

Delivery of document: two months after payment of the registration fee. The registration certificate is issued in electronic format. It is possible to request the certificate in paper format, with additional fees.

Publication: immediately after registration. 

Beginning of protection: from the day of filing of the application. 

Kind of property: right of exclusive use. 

Duration: ten years.

Renewal: for periods of ten years; may be requested during the last year of validity; grace period: six months with fine. 

Term for payment of the fee: must be paid in advance for the whole period of protection.

Marking of registered goods: not compulsory. 

Use of trademarks: compulsory. The court may cancel the registration of a trademark in full or in part by reason of an application filed by interested third parties, in the event of non-use of a trademark during a period of three years as of the date of registration. 

Nominal use: in addition to the actual use, recognized acts of use are the publication of trademarks in Russian journals or the presentation of goods provided with the marks at exhibitions in the Russian Federation, if there are valid reasons for not using the trademark on products and their packaging.

Licenses: a firm in whose name a trademark or service mark is registered has the right to issue licenses for the complete or partial use of its trademark by other firms. Licensing is permitted but only so long as the quality of the licensee’s goods is not inferior to that of the licensor’s and provided the licensor exercises control to that effect; the recordal of licenses with the Patent and Trademark Office is compulsory. 

Assignment: must be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office. An assignment is not allowed, if it may lead to confusion of customers with regard to goods, a manufacturer or as of May 29, 2023 place of manufacture. Documents required: document(s) confirming the payment of the fee, one power of attorney signed by the assignor or by the assignee, document(s) confirming consent to the processing of the representative's personal data. In the event of filing an application by one of the parties to a contract, one of the following documents: a notice signed by the parties to the contract on the disposal of an exclusive right to intellectual property or an extract from the contract certified by a notary or the contract (with mandatory statement of financial terms and conditions of trademark assignment), no legalization.

Modification of the mark: must be registered; accepted only if the essence of the trademark has not been changed. 

Changes in the list of goods: restrictions are accepted, otherwise by filing a new application; also divisional registration form of the parent registration is acceptable. 

Exhaustion of rights: registration of a trademark shall not authorize the owner to forbid other persons to use that mark in respect of the goods which have been put on the market of the Russian Federation directly by the trademark owner or upon his consent. 

Publication: in the Register of Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of origin posted on the website of the Russian Patent and Trademark Office (www.fips.ru) (only electronic publication is available; paper-based version is no longer published).

Right of prior user: not provided for. 

Opposition to registered marks: the legal protection granted to a trademark may be disputed or found invalid: (1) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark, if the legal protection was granted to the trademark without compliance with the requirements reserved under absolute grounds for denying trademark registration (see above in Section 3. Filing); (2) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark: (a) if the registered mark is identical or confusingly similar to trade names or commercial names (separate elements of said names) under protection in the Russian Federation or names of breeding achievements registered with the State Register of protectable breeding achievements with ownership rights of a third party to such breeding achievements dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered; and in accordance with Article 1483(9) of the this Civil Code; (b) if the registered mark is identical or confusingly similar to the name of a work of science, literature, or art known in the Russian Federation on the date of filing the application for state registration of a trademark, name of a character, or a citation from said work, an artwork or a fragment thereof, without an owner’s consent, if rights to said work are dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered; name, or pseudonym, or a mark deriving therefrom, a portrait or a facsimile of a person well-known in the Russian Federation on the date of filing the trademark application, without such person’s consent or his/her successor; (c) industrial design, conformity mark, if rights to said items are dated earlier than the priority date claimed for designation to be registered; (3) in full or in part within a five-year period from the publication date of a trademark state registration information published in the Official Trademark Gazette, if the legal protection was granted to the trademark registered without compliance with the requirements reserved under relative grounds for denying trademark registration, i.e. trademark was registered contrary to a third party priority right to identical or confusingly similar trademark valid on the territory of the Russian Federation and registered for identical or similar goods; (4) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark, if the legal protection was granted to the trademark in the case that a trademark fails to be registered in the name of a legal entity or a natural person (Note: as of June 29, 2023 the provision becomes invalid); (5) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the legal protection, if said legal protection was granted to a trademark having a later priority date with respect to a third party registered trademark which was found a well-known trademark; (6) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark, if the legal protection was granted to the trademark in the name of an agent or a representative of a party which is an owner of said exclusive right in one of the countries member to the Paris Convention and contrary to the requirements of said Convention; (7) in full or in part within the entire validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark, if the trademark owner’s actions related to registration of the trademark or the other trademark being confusingly similar to this trademark have been found law abusive acts or unfair competition acts in accordance with the established order; (8) if two identical trademarks have been registered in the names of different applicants claiming identical priority dates and in case of non-observance of the requirement of law on providing an agreement between said applicants to define which one of the two marks is eligible to registration and which one must be withdrawn.

Compulsory licenses: in cases provided for under currently effective legislation, a court may resolve upon an interested party’s request to grant to said interested party upon conditions specified in court’s decision the right to using the output of intellectual activity which is owned by other party.

Provision for restoration: no provision. 

Infringement and penalties: during the period of validity of a certificate for the right of exclusive use of a trademark, the owner of such a certificate may demand that the unlawful use of the same or similar trade or service mark on goods or for services being closely related should be stopped and that he should be paid compensation for damages.

Disappearance of a trademark owner: a trademark registration may be cancelled by a declaration of interested third parties, if they submit to the Patent and Trademark Office a document evidencing that the trademark owner is liquidated without hereditary succession at the Commercial Register. 

Recognition of a trademark as becoming the customary name of goods or services: a trademark registration may be cancelled by a declaration of interested third parties, if the Patent Dispute Chamber decides that the proofs which the interested third party submits are satisfactory for recognizing the trademark as becoming the customary name of goods or services. The decision of the Patent Dispute Chamber may be appealed ad litem. 

Recognition of a trademark as well-known: a trademark owner is entitled to petition the Patent Dispute Chamber with claiming his mark as well-known. The Patent Dispute Chamber examines this case in compliance with Article 6bis of the Paris Convention. If the mark is recognized as well-known it will be protected for all goods or services. 

Amendments to trademark registrations: possible (trademark owner’s name and/or address are amendable based on an evidencing document; a list of goods and services is amendable without broadening the initially stated scope of claims; only very inessential amendments are allowed to be entered into trademarks). A trademark owner is supposed to report on essential amendments, such as essential amendments to trademark owner’s name and/or address (no statutory time limits are available).

Legal entities, including non-profit agencies, and sole proprietors may use commercial names that are not trade names for individualization of their trade, industrial, and other establishments (a single establishment or several establishments) in their ownership. It is not obligatory to mention such commercial names in constitutive documents and in a common national Register of legal entities.

Legal entities, including non-profit agencies, and sole proprietors may use commercial names that are not trade names for individualization of their trade, industrial, and other establishments (a single establishment or several establishments) in their ownership. It is not obligatory to mention such commercial names in constitutive documents and in a common national Register of legal entities.

Scope of protection: exclusive rights to use of commercial names by means of any lawful way, including placing the commercial name on sign boards, corporate letterheads, invoices, and other papers, by using the commercial name for announcements and advertising, on products and product package, on the Internet, if such commercial name has sufficient distinguishing features and owner’s use thereof for individualization of business establishments is known within a certain territory. 

Limitation of protection: no use of commercial name shall be allowed if said commercial name is capable to mislead consumers as to the ownership of the business establishment by a certain entity, in particular use of those commercial names that are confusingly similar to trade name, trademark, or commercial name protected under the exclusive right of another party which acquired said exclusive right earlier. 

Liability: discontinuance of unauthorized use of commercial name and compensation for damages.

Assignment: possible only within business establishment for individualization of which such commercial name is used. 

License: possible based on lease agreement or commercial concession agreement. 

Termination of protection: non-use by owner within a continuous year. 

Relationship of commercial name rights to trade name and trademark rights: exclusive right to commercial name, including owner’s trade name or separate elements thereof, comes into being and exists regardless of exclusive right to trade name; commercial name and separate elements thereof can be used by the owner for a trademark he owns; commercial name included into trademark is protected regardless of the trademark protection.