The court satisfied the claim of Abi about the illegal use of the trademark "Hot thing"

The Arbitration COURT of the Trans-Baikal Territory satisfied the claim of one of the enterprises of the holding - CJSC "Meat Gallery" - to the Chita LLC "Khutorok", obliging the defendant to pay monetary compensation for the illegal use of the trademark "Hot thing".

CJSC Myasnaya Gallery is the copyright holder of the Hot Stuff trademark registered in the State Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Russian Federation (Certificate No. 455321 dated March 1, 2012) and protected in the Russian Federation in accordance with the current legislation in the field of intellectual property protection. The company filed an application with the Arbitration Court of the Trans-Baikal Territory for the illegal use of this trademark by one of the public catering establishments in Chita - the TESTO cafe-pizzeria, owned by Khutorok LLC. 

The cafe-pizzeria used the verbal designation "Hot thing", identical to the trademark, the exclusive right to which belongs to CJSC "Meat Gallery", in the name of one of the menu dishes. The Arbitration Court of the Trans-Baikal Territory considered the application and, having studied the case materials, including those obtained during the test purchase, came to the conclusion that the intellectual property right had been violated. The corresponding decision dated May 19, 2021 was published in the file of arbitration cases.

The court ordered Khutorok LLC to stop the illegal use of the Hot Trick trademark, namely: stop selling the product under the controversial designation and remove all unlawful references to it from the Internet. In addition, the court recognized as lawful the demand of CJSC Myasnaya Gallery to recover monetary compensation from the defendant for the use of the trademark in the amount of 300 thousand rubles.

Khutorok LLC did not agree with the decision of the court of first instance and filed an appeal with the Fourth Arbitration Court of Appeal. At a meeting held in Chita on July 26, 2021, the Court of Appeal considered the defendant's application and evidence of the violation of intellectual property rights provided by Myasnaya Gallery CJSC. As a result, the request of Khutorok LLC was rejected, and the decision of the court of first instance was left unchanged. 

Abi CEO, HEAD of the company's legal department Tatiana Trifonova recalled that according to the results of a study by GFK-Rus LLC for 2020, Abi was recognized as a sales leader in all categories of presence in the Russian Federation. The trademark "Hot thing", the exclusive right to use which belongs to CJSC "Myasnaya Gallery", is named the No. 1 brand in the market of frozen ready-to-cook foods in RUSSIA.

According to Tatyana Trifonova, high-profile statuses are based on many years of work on a range of high-quality and tasty MEAT products and the formation of strong recognizable brands. That is why it is important for Abi to provide comprehensive legal protection against actions by unscrupulous competitors, including stopping any attempts to “parasitize” on the popularity and achievements of trademarks in different regions of Russia.