MOSCOW, August 23 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) has stayed the proceedings initiated by Swedish Avito Holding AB challenging the lawfulness of a decision of Rospatent, the federal intellectual property watchdog, declining to recognize Avito brand as a commonly known one in the Russian Federation, court materials read on Friday.

The Swedish company is seeking to recognize the brand as a commonly known one in the sphere of promotion of goods of third parties and among the means relating to digital bulletin boards.

Avito Holding AB was founded in Sweden in 2005 and is at present the administrator of avito.ru domain name, which has displayed more than 700 million offers over 10 years. The applicant believes that numerous references in the media is evidence that the brand is commonly known in Russia.

In its turn, Rospatent insists that actual activity of the Avito internet portal and its promotion is carried out by registered in 2017 Russian company, where the applicant has a 97.4% interest. The evidence presented by the applicant, the watchdog says, is not sufficient to prove that customers think Avito brand to be exclusively connected with Avito Holding AB, and that the brand fame has been a result of the activity of the applicant.