MOSCOW, May 18 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court will hear on July 12 the Italian Geox S.p.A. footwear company's lawsuit to protect its exclusive right to its trademarks and trade name.

The action has been initiated against Dmitry Sevyan, the administrator of www.geox.ru, and the Regional Network Information Center's registrar.

The plaintiff seeks to recover 100,000 rubles ($3,400) in damages. Sevyan owns geox.ru, which Geox S.p.A. believes constitutes trademark infringement.
Geox S.p.A. stated on Friday that the infringement concerns not only "website registration, but also the sale of goods with unregistered trademarks."

The plaintiff thinks Russian consumers may be misled as GEOX is a well-known brand and customers might think the website belongs to the company.

According to the plaintiff, Geox S.p.A. is also unable to register the website itself.

Sevyan disagrees and sees "no subject for a dispute." He said on Friday that he entered into a contract for exclusive GEOX products distribution in Russia in 2005 and the website in question was purchased and registered with the company's knowledge. Moreover, an agreement on the website transfer to Geox S.p.A. was drawn up, he said.

Sevyan added that he has opened more than 60 GEOX outlets in Russia.

However, the company offered Sevyan another distribution contract in 2009 with worse terms. Their cooperation then ceased and Sevyan offered to provide the outlets and the website to Geox S.p.A. in exchange for compensating his costs.

Geox S.p.A. was founded in the early 1990s and has been listed on the Italian stock exchange since 2004. The company designs, produces and sells clothes and shoes all over the world.