MOSCOW, February 12 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by Bonduellе S.A.S. to prohibit Russian national Alexander Lishchin from using the brand name in his bonduellе.ru domain, RAPSI reports from the court.

The French producer of canned and frozen vegetables has the exclusive rights to the Bonduelle trademark under international registration regulations. A Bonduelle representative said in court that the use of the trademark in the bonduellе.ru domain name infringes on the company’s ownership rights.

The defendant argued that since he is not a businessman his case cannot be heard in a commercial court. Moreover, he claimed that the lawsuit had been filed improperly because Bonduelle is not a registered trademark in Russia. He said the lawsuit could only be filed by Bonduelle-Kuban, the plaintiff’s canning company in the Krasnodar Territory.

Lishchin also argued that Bonduelle is not a resident company in Russia, that in France nonresidents cannot register their domain names in France’s domain zone, and that he, Lishchin, therefore owns the bonduelle.ru domain lawfully and may use it to publish any information he wants.

Prior to the hearing, the court issued an injunction prohibiting the defendant from taking any action with regard to the bonduellе.ru domain name, specifically to divest it, withdraw ownership rights or change registrars. It also ruled that the domain’s registrar may not cancel the domain name or turn the administration rights over to any other person.