MOSCOW, March 2 - RAPSI. The Volga District Federal Commercial Court has held against the prosecutors' complaint against the refusal to ban Metro Cash & Carry from using Qolsharif Mosque image in its adverts, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com)

The Tatarstan Commercial Court dismissed the lawsuit against Metro on October 12. The Eleventh Commercial appeals Court sided with the trial court decision on December 12.

The prosecutor sought the administrative liability for the defendant for trademark violation arguing that the mosque image published in the retailer's catalogue is confusingly similar to the previously registered trademark of the Kazan Kremlin Museum Preserve.

According to the defendant it ordered the image for its advertising cataloguefor its customers in Tatarstan and distributed it last spring within two weeks. In the defendant's view the mosque's image is not confusingly similar to the trademark registered for the Kremlin museum as the catalogue image is not a photo, but a stylized picture.

Metro Cash & Carry is a trading division of the German METRO Group, a world's leading cash and carry chain. It operates 57 Metro Cash & Carry stores in Russia.