Defended the company Drinks from Chernogolovka-Aqualife in disputes with The Coca-Cola Company

Pepeliaev Group’s team from the Intellectual Property and Trademarks Practice has successfully defended the company Drinks from Chernogolovka-AQUALIFE in its dispute with The Coca-Cola Company.

Rospatent received an objection filed by The Coca-Cola Company against legal protection being granted to the trademark “FANTOLA”. The ground for the objection was that this word is confusingly similar to the trademark “FANTA”. Rospatent dismissed the objection. The applicant disagreed with this decision and appealed to the Court for Intellectual Property Rights. Lawyers of our practice developed a legal position and reinforced it with a sociological survey as well as an expert opinion. In addition, they analysed the opponent's position and provided the court with detailed explanations of how it was inconsistent with the case materials.

The Court for Intellectual Property Rights upheld The Coca-Cola Company's application, set aside Rospatent’s decision and instructed it to reconsider the claimant’s objection. This decision threatened the results of another similar case regarding the “FANTOLA” trademark. Having disagreed with the decision of the Court for Intellectual Property Rights, our team prepared a cassation appeal and stated in it our arguments for why this decision was unlawful. The Presidium of the Court agreed with the arguments in the cassation appeal, dismissed the decision of the court of original jurisdiction and referred the case for re-examination.

This created an opportunity for the lawsuit regarding the “FANTOLA” trademark to be considered without any prejudicial conclusions concerning confusing similarity between the “FANTA” and “FANTOLA” trademarks. The first instance court and the cassation court made judicial decisions in favour of the client and the Russian Supreme Court refused to consider The Coca-Cola Company's cassation appeal.

When the lawsuit regarding the “FANTOLA” trademark was re-examined by the first instance court, the court agreed with the client's arguments and dismissed The Coca-Cola Company's application. The legal protection of the “FANTOLA” trademark remained in force. The decision of the Court for Intellectual Property Rights was upheld by the Presidium.