The 15th "Intellectual Property - XXI Century" forum, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, was opened in Moscow on April 25. The forum is dedicated to the International Intellectual Property Day (April 26), which is held by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Participants discussed innovations in the practice of protecting trademark rights, the development of judicial practice in challenging Rospatent decisions in the intellectual property court, the regulation of parallel imports to prevent counterfeiting and other topical issues.
A round table "Topical Issues Of Protection And Protection Of Rights To Trademarks And Other Means Of Individualization", addressed by Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, and Sergey Kopylov, Deputy Director of the Center for Legal Affairs, was held within the framework of the forum. Andrey Vorobyev spoke about how the rights of copyright holders are protected in connection with unfair registration and on use of domain names and what role the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ plays in this process.
He emphasized that the determination of good faith or lack thereof in the registration and use of domain names is within the competence of the courts or the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and the Coordination Center does not have the authority to resolve issues of bad faith of domain name administrators.
But the Center is doing a lot of work aimed at effectively resolving conflict situations between trademark holders and holders of rights to domain names. So, back in 2012, the Center developed the Regulations “On The Procedures To Be Applied In The Event Of Disputes About Domain Names”, which provides for pre-trial restrictions on actions with domain names at the request of the right holder before filing a lawsuit. These measures constitute a temporary ban imposed by the registrar on the cancellation of a domain name registration, the delegation of administration rights to another person, and the delegation to another support registrar of information about the domain name in respect of which the application was received.
Andrey Vorobyev also noted the free Domains and Trademarks service, which can be used to check whether there are registered domain names in .RU and .РФ domains that fully or partially match the verbal designation of a trademark. “However, the most effective way to combat cybersquatting and typesquatting remains not only the registration of a trademark, but also the registration of the maximum number of similar domains,” Andrey Vorobyev added.
Sergey Kopylov, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs of the Center, spoke about the positions of the courts in relation to domain disputes and, together with Andrey Vorobyev, answered the questions of the participants.
