ST. PETERSBURG, November 19 (RAPSI) - The Commercial Court of the Stavropol Territory will consider the Hermitage Museum's lawsuit against fashion designer from St. Petersburg on December 9, the Supreme Commercial Court reported on its website on Tuesday.

The museum has asked the court to order designer Iya Yots to stop using the image of the painting, "A Woman in Blue," by Thomas Gainsborough.

The court will reargue this case. On September 23, Russia's Intellectual Property Court (IP Court), which was established in April to hear intellectual property cases both as a court of first instance and as a supreme court of appeals, granted a cassation appeal filed by Yots against the ruling prohibiting her from using the painting in her designs and remanded the case for a new trial.

In February, the Commercial Court of the Stavropol Territory ruled in favor of the Hermitage Museum's lawsuit against designer, prohibiting her from using the painting. In May, the Sixteenth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

The "Portrait of a Lady in Blue" by Thomas Gainsborough was bequeathed to the Hermitage by Alexei Khitrovo and was given to the museum in 1916. It is the only example of the English artist's work in Russia. Some art historians believe that it is a portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort.