MOSCOW, February 26 (RAPSI) – The Kalashnikov Group has filed an appeal against a court ruling that rejected its request to terminate the legal protection of the Kalashnikov logo, a 3D image of the famous gun with an AK-47 graphic element, which belongs to the gun designer and his daughter and grandson, the Intellectual Property Court said in a statement.

The ruling in favor of the designer’s family was made on December 23, 2014.

The Presidium of the Intellectual Property Court said that the trademark was used by the rights holder (defendant) and other individuals who produced and marketed the gun in Russia under the rights holder’s control.

The brand was registered by the company M.T. Kalashnikov in 2004, and legal protection was extended in late 2012 through 2022, according to the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent). It also covers clothes, headgear, toys, gaming machines and table games that have the Kalashnikov logo.

The Kalashnikov Group said its lawsuit did not infringe on the rights and interests of Kalashnikov’s heirs and that it had filed the lawsuit to terminate the logo’s legal protection because the designer’s heirs did not use it.

The Kalashnikov Group is an association of the largest companies in the Russian small arms industry. It was established in 2013 and includes Izhmash, the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, the Vyatskie Polyany Machine Building Plant Molot, the Koshkin Automatic Lines Design Bureau (Klimovsk) and NITI Progress (Izhevsk).

The group exports its products to 27 countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Norway, Italy, Canada, Kazakhstan and Thailand.