The buyer of Danone’s assets in Russia received the rights to the Rastishka and Danissimo brands

Russian JSC H&N (formerly Danone Russia, bought by Tatar Vamin R) has received partial rights to the Danone Rastishka and Danissimo brands, but can use them in a limited number of countries.

Information about the new owner has appeared in the database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). According to the organization’s materials, the trademarks will remain the property of the French company; we are talking about a partial transfer of rights in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As regards the Danissimo trademark, the rights extend only to Russia and Belarus.

Danone has reserved the right to use Russian-language trademarks in Ukraine, Georgia and some other countries. In addition, the French manufacturer has limited H&N’s rights to Rastishka and Danone’s typical packaging outside the Russian Federation.

H&N’s rights to Aktibio are also at the registration stage, the application is undergoing formal verification. RB.RU has sent a request to the company.

The WIPO database contains information that H&N has registered the trademarks Planto and Actimuno for use in some CIS countries.

As RB.RU explains Managing Partner of Streda Consulting Alexey Gruzdevwe are talking about legal formalities. Danone, even before all the events related to the transfer of its assets to the Federal Property Management Agency (they were transferred in July 2023, but in March 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin reversed this decision), withdrew all its international brands from the Russian market (Activia, Alpro, Actimel and Danone) and launched the localization process under the names “Actibio”, Planto, Actimuno. At the same time, the initially local brands for Russia remained in the Health & Nutrition portfolio unchanged: Prostokvashino, Rastishka, Danissimo, Tema, Petmol, Bio Balance and others.

In 2023, Rospatent registered the termination of the licensing agreement between H&N and France’s Danone for the use of dozens of brands, including Rastishka and Danissimo. Danone subsequently returned the rights to the latter two brands to the company, but for a limited time and only in the Russian Federation, according to Kontur Focus data.

As RB.RU explains Founder of the patent office Isibrand and patent attorney Olga BondarevaA brand always has a territory of validity.

“When a company receives a trademark, it is valid in a certain country. Later, on the basis of a trademark certificate, we can extend its effect to other countries, thereby obtaining a monopoly on the use of the trademark anywhere. In different countries, for the convenience of doing business, it may be convenient for us to have a trademark in different companies, especially if they are part of the same group, an industrial alliance or are partners,” Bondareva explained.

According to the expert, the resulting trademark can be transferred through an alienation agreement, in whole or in part, in the territory of one or more countries.

“But when we have a trademark in one country and we extend it to other countries under the Madrid system, we have a trademark in the base country of origin and dependent trademarks in other countries. They will remain “dependent” for five years. If the base is, for example, in Russia, and within five years something happens to it, for example, it is terminated early, then an application filed and registered on its basis under the Madrid system in another country or in several countries may also be automatically terminated because the base trademark has ceased to be valid. There are ways to maintain the international registration when the underlying trademark is cancelled, but this poses additional complications for companies,” the patent attorney said.

The founder of Isibrand commented on the termination of the license agreement. According to her, in order to find out the details, it is necessary to make an official request to Rospatent: to clarify the conditions under which this agreement was concluded and analyze them. In the meantime, it can be assumed that the agreement was directly or indirectly related to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 430 of May 20, 2024 “On the temporary procedure for the acquisition of exclusive rights from certain copyright holders and the fulfillment of monetary obligations to certain foreign creditors by entities controlled by them”, which states that there are certain restrictions for the chain “Russia – foreign companies” (in particular, restrictions on the amount of the contract). The expert believes that such a license may no longer be relevant, since the company has left the market.

• Danone announced on May 17 that it had closed a deal to sell Russian assets to Vamin R. The French manufacturer received permission to sell from the government commission in March 2024.
• Danone did not provide details of the deal, but noted that it had received permission from Russian authorities. The FT reported that the transaction amount could amount to 17.7 billion rubles and the discount reached 56%. To ensure business continuity, Danone agreed to support H&N until the end of July 2025 while the company localizes the production of some ingredients.
• Vamin R is 99% owned by Vamin Tatarstan owned by Mintimer Mingazov, a member of the H&N board of directors, which manages 13 Danone factories in Russia. Yakub Zakriev, Chechnya’s agriculture minister, has been appointed CEO of H&N.
• In 2022, following the start of the CBO, Danone transferred the Russian business to local senior management and suspended all investments.