MOSCOW, September 26 (RAPSI, Natalia Belova) – Russia’s Supreme Court has registered an appeal filed by M. T. Kalashnikov, a firm established by the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, against lower courts’ rulings in the company’s trademark dispute with the firearms maker Kalashnikov Concern, according to court records.

Moreover, M. T. Kalashnikov lodged a motion for the restoration of the missed deadline to appeal the judgments.

The claim was filed by the Concern in June 2014. The plaintiff requested termination of legal protection of Kalashnikov trademark due to the brand not being used by the right holder. Kalashnikov Concern is interested in obtaining the rights because it produces full-scale models of weapons, including the AK-47.

The disputed trademark was registered by M.T. Kalashnikov in 2004, and its legal protection was extended in late 2012 through 2022, according to patent agency Rospatent. The trademark is applicable to a list of goods including clothes, headwear, toys, gaming machines and table games.

The ruling in favor of M.T. Kalashnikov was handed down on December 23, 2014. The court ruled that there was no reason to terminate the legal protection of the trademark. However, the Presidium of the Intellectual Property Court in May 2015 granted a motion for reconsideration.

In April 2016, the Intellectual Property Court reconsidered the case and ruled in favor of the Concern. In July, the decision was upheld by the IP Court’s Presidium.

M.T. Kalashnikov was established in 1999 by Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the famous rifle, his daughter and grandson, according to BIR-Analitik database.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was 94 when he died on December 23, 2013.

Kalashnikov Concern 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.

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