Commonly known sausage names suggest "nationalization"

Courts are hearing hundreds of cases from trademark owners seeking compensation for the illegal production of sausages with traditional names registered as their intellectual property. In particular, the Mikoyanovsky MEAT processing plant filed 73 such claims totaling about 1.3 billion rubles. “Borodinskaya” and “Moskvoretskaya” sausages , “School”, “Sovetskie” sausages, etc.  come to the attention of lawyers.

In some cases, such processes end in settlement agreements, but more often - in the victory of the plaintiff. Sometimes the exclusive copyright holder no longer produces a product under one name or another, but methodically collects “tribute” for the mark through the courts from regional manufacturers who have mastered the recipe.

So-called “patent trolls” have appeared - legal entities and individual entrepreneurs who register rights to several trademarks in order to then sue companies that manufacture products in accordance with GOST. Nikolai Aksenov, executive DIRECTOR of the National Union of Meat Processors (NUM), spoke about this . As a result, both the consumer, deprived of the opportunity to buy a familiar product declared counterfeit, and the bona fide manufacturer, who incurs losses, suffer.

Deputy Director of the Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems named after. V. M. Gorbatov RAS Anastasia Semenova explained that until 1991, most of the invented names of meat products were included in state standards and were actually state property, and subsequently mass registration of the same names as trademarks began in the Russian Federation. Anything that had any commercial value was patented. Judicial practice has developed according to which the presence of GOST on the label does not mean that the name of the product is generally known. Attempts to invalidate trademarks due to the fact that they have lost distinctiveness at the time of application, or due to unfair competition on the part of the trademark owner, are usually unsuccessful.

NSM proposed returning sausages from the USSR times to the status of a national treasure and making appropriate amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. These steps will free the industry from the pressure of unscrupulous companies that have actually appropriated well-known names that existed before them and are using the legal uncertainty in this matter to extract unjustified benefits, Nikolai Aksenov believes.

Meanwhile, the General Director of the Online Patent company, Alina Akinshina, is convinced that such initiatives require a balanced approach. The history of the country is not limited to the Soviet period; there are earlier documents from past centuries that need to be studied. There is a great risk that modern meat processing enterprises have invested huge amounts of money in the creation and development of brands. Their achievements are under attack. In addition, the market may be flooded with low-quality products from copycat companies who will be happy to take advantage of the brand's popularity in the eyes of consumers immediately after it loses its registered trademark status.