MOSCOW, February 5 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) has upheld an earlier decision dismissing a Japan Tobacco International (JTI) petition to terminate the legal protection of WinSStar trademark owned by OOO Baltiyskaya Tabachnaya Fabrika, the court materials read.

JTI sought to invalidate the decision of the Chamber for Patent Disputes of April 16, 2019.

At that time, the patent agency refused to rule in favor of the Japanese company demanding to discontinue the protection of WinSStar brand, which, JTI believed, was confusingly similar to Winston trademark it owned and insisted that the Russian manufacturer attempted to unfairly use the public awareness and reputation of the respective product.

Nevertheless, the Russian Federal Agency for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent) ruled in support of the Russian manufacturer finding no similarities as to the phonetics and semantics of the two brands.