Legal Costs Recovered Amounting to RUB 1.5 Million
The Russian distributor of a South Korean company’s products registered the ACE trademark in its own name, despite the fact that the South Korean company had used this mark for many years to identify its products in South Korea and had supplied those products to Russia under the same mark. Some time later, the distributor filed a claim with the Commercial Court for the city of Moscow seeking compensation from the South Korean company for having infringed the distributor’s exclusive rights to the trademark.
The court case lasted a total of four years, including a stay of proceedings for one and a half years and the cassation court referring the case back to the court of first instance to be reconsidered. We wrote about this case previously.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers successfully secured a ruling from the Intellectual Property Court recognising that the distributor had committed an act of unfair competition in registering and using the trademark, and holding that the legal protection granted to the trademark had been invalid. Since the right that the distributor had been seeking to protect had been declared invalid, it withdrew its claims against the South Korean company.
However, the withdrawal of claims is not a ground for a claimant to be released from the obligation to reimburse legal costs in the case.
Acting on behalf of the South Korean company, Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers prepared an application to recover legal costs incurred in proceedings concerning the infringement of the exclusive right to the trademark. The application was substantiated by referring to the duration and complexity of the case, as well as the volume and quality of the procedural documents. The court accepted these arguments and ordered the claimant to reimburse legal costs in the amount of RUB 1.5 million.
This is one of the largest awards of legal costs in a case ever granted by the Commercial Court for the city of Moscow.
The court case lasted a total of four years, including a stay of proceedings for one and a half years and the cassation court referring the case back to the court of first instance to be reconsidered. We wrote about this case previously.
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers successfully secured a ruling from the Intellectual Property Court recognising that the distributor had committed an act of unfair competition in registering and using the trademark, and holding that the legal protection granted to the trademark had been invalid. Since the right that the distributor had been seeking to protect had been declared invalid, it withdrew its claims against the South Korean company.
However, the withdrawal of claims is not a ground for a claimant to be released from the obligation to reimburse legal costs in the case.
Acting on behalf of the South Korean company, Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers prepared an application to recover legal costs incurred in proceedings concerning the infringement of the exclusive right to the trademark. The application was substantiated by referring to the duration and complexity of the case, as well as the volume and quality of the procedural documents. The court accepted these arguments and ordered the claimant to reimburse legal costs in the amount of RUB 1.5 million.
This is one of the largest awards of legal costs in a case ever granted by the Commercial Court for the city of Moscow.