Moscow, April 21 – RAPSI, Dmitry Shchitov. The Presidium of the Russian Supreme Commercial Court will review a claim from G.H.Mumm & Cie (France) on a case banning Russian businessman from using the MUMM trademark in the domain name, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI).

The case materials state that G.H. Mumm & Cie owns the MUMM international trademark registered on Aug. 19, 1986.

According to the claim, between Sept. 24, 2009, and Dec. 25, 2010, Russian businessman Shukhrat Yusupov administrated the www.mumm.ru domain, which was a violation of the trademark owner’s exclusive rights.

The Supreme Commercial Court’s decision to forward the case to its presidium states that an individual who registered a trademark in his name (copyright owner) holds the exclusive rights to use the trademark in any manner that is not against the law (exclusive rights to a trademark), according to Article 1484 of the Civil Code.

The Supreme Commercial Court also noted that the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property contains a general ban on unfair competition.

Therefore, a domain name’s registration may be canceled if there is evidence that the domain name is identical to or may cause confusion with a third party’s trademark.

As stated in the case materials and admitted by the defendant, the www.mumm.ru website had not been used since the defendant received administration rights to the domain. Moreover, on Dec. 25, Yusupov passed the administration rights to a new administrator.

The Supreme Commercial Court’s decision says the defendant could be and was aware of the existence of G.H. Mumm & Cie’s registered website and the fact that an identical domain in the Russian Internet sector could be confusing for the company’s clients.