Lipetsk plant in court upholds the trademark for french fries
Launched in 2018 in the special economic zone (SEZ) Lipetsk, the Belaya Dacha plant and the Dutch Lamb Weston / Meijer encountered difficulties in producing french fries. The company was unable to register the Triumph trademark, under which it manufactures products packaged in 2,5 kg each: previously, the little-known Omsk Triumph-Company LLC obtained the rights to it. In the activities of the Omsk company, food production was not declared at all, and lawyers believe that the Lipetsk plant has a great chance of success in the proceedings.
The Intellectual Property Court has begun considering an application by the Russian-Dutch LLC Lam Weston Belaya Dacha (which manages the plant near Lipetsk) to the Omsk LLC Triumph-Company on the early termination of legal protection of the trademark due to its non-use. From the data of Rospatent it follows that we are talking about a text trademark "Triumph", owned by the Omsk company until 2022. It is registered for several dozen goods (from hangers to lobsters) for four classes of goods - furniture; meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables and fruits; unprocessed agricultural products; soft drinks and beer. The plant is seeking to terminate trademark protection for all goods of the class "meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products ...", as well as the class "coffee, milk, flour, bread, spices ...". The second of these classes, however, does not appear in the registration data of the Triumph-Company trademark.
According to open sources, Lam Weston Belaya Dacha produces a part of its main product - french fries under the Triumph brand. We are talking about transparent packaging, the products in which are packaged in 2,5 kg. This brand is not the only one for the company: it is also trying to register the Fryme and Freimi trademarks. The plant filed an application for the Triumph trademark in July 2019, but Rospatent noted the presence of a similar mark.
The parties yesterday chose not to comment on the proceedings. The director general of the plant, Irina Shatskaya, explained the refusal of comments by the fact that they “could affect the value of the shares” of a public foreign participant in the enterprise. The Triumph Company refused to communicate with Kommersant Chernozemye. It is noteworthy that in the list of economic activities of this legal entity neither production nor trade in food products is indicated. Triumph is the only registered trademark of this company.
According to Kartoteka.ru, Triumph-Company is engaged in the lease and management of its own real estate. The company is owned by Natalya Agafonova, the director is Yuri Turchenyuk. The revenue of the legal entity in 2017 amounted to 88 million rubles, net profit - 45,3 million rubles.
A joint venture between the Belaya Dacha group and the Dutch Lamb Weston / Meijer for the production of frozen potatoes in the Lipetsk SEZ was officially launched at the end of April 2018, although the first lines of the plant have been operating since December 2017. 200 billion rubles were invested in the project with a capacity of 8,7 thousand tons per year. According to Kartoteka.ru, the company's authorized capital is 5,49 billion rubles, revenue in 2017 - 1,28 billion rubles, loss - 993 million rubles.
The early termination of protection of a trademark for certain classes is possible under a number of conditions, reminds the partner of the law firm "Nafko" Pavel Ikkert: “The main thing is the non-use of the registered designation by the rightholder continuously for three years. After that, Lam Weston Belaya Dacha got the opportunity to appeal to the copyright holder with a proposal to independently terminate the legal protection of the designation for this class. The copyright holder could put forward a counter offer and come to an agreement. But if a claim is filed, the parties either could not agree, or the plaintiff did not apply with extrajudicial proposals to the defendant. " "" Triumph-Company "will need to present evidence to the court that for three years the controversial designation was used for at least one type of product of the class" meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products ... ". Otherwise, the court may take the side of the plaintiff, ”agrees Dmitry Gorbunov, partner of Rustam Kurmaev & Partners.