The national pharmaceutical chain VITA / VITA Express, which has been operating in Russia since 1995 and numbers 1,730 pharmacies, engaged the Firm’s services after it became known that a competitor was also using a logo containing the word “ВИТА” (the Russian word for VITA) and a similar colour combination on its signs. Moreover, VITA’s opponent managed to register its logo as a trademark with Rospatent. Protecting the client’s interests proved to be challenging as the logo used by the client was different from the one protected by their trademark.

The mala fide actions taken by the client’s competitor led to a major confrontation on the pharmaceutical market, most significant of which involved the opponent’s attempts to remove the client from the market or to dramatically reduce its share of the market.

Nevertheless, the legal strategy elaborated by attorneys of the Firm made it possible to successfully challenge the opponent’s trademark at Rospatent and prove that the opponent’s logo was misleading consumers as to which entity they were purchasing pharmaceutical goods from. In the end, the Rospatent Chamber for Patent Disputes invalidated the opponent’s trademark in full.

IP/TMT Сounsels Pavel Sadovsky and Irina Kosovskaya represented the client at the Chamber for Patent Disputes. Associate Maxim Burda and Junior Associate Stepan Abramov assisted with drafting and filing.