Armenian company Yandex received brand rights to online gaming platform Playhop in Russia

According to the Ipowner database, Direct Cursus Technology owns the trademarks Yango, YtSaurus, Ydb, Yango Market, Yango Dali, made in the Yandex style. The company owns the online platform Playhop. There is no direct confirmation of membership.

In January 2022, Direct Cursus Computer Systems Trading, which was listed as a publisher of several Yandex mobile applications, was registered in the United Arab Emirates, Kommersant reported. The publication associates the registration with the intention of developing international business, including in Arab countries.

In January 2024, Direct Cursus Technology received the Playhop brand from the Swiss company Intertech Services AG. According to the Opencorporates database, this structure was registered in Switzerland and belonged to Yandex NV. After the split of Yandex, its international part, Yandex NV, continued to operate abroad and was renamed Nebius. This company, like Direct Cursus Technology, is not mentioned in the list of Yandex ICPJSC subsidiaries.

YEHub Armenia LLC is registered at the Yandex Armenia office address in Yerevan, Moskovyan 35, where IT specialists work, developing solutions for Armenia and the markets of other countries, the Armenian Economy portal reported. In Yandex materials, the structure is indicated as affiliated with it at the end of June 2024. In April 2023, the Minister of Economy of Armenia, Vahan Kerobyan, announced that Yandex plans to open Yandex.hub in the republic.

The Playhop brand operates a free online games platform with an intelligent recommendation model, where 20 thousand games from 3 thousand developers are published. The platform’s website indicates that the estimated monthly average number of active Playhop users (active recipients of the service in the EU – editor’s note) in the EU for the 6-month period ending November 1, 2024 is 4.67 million. requirements of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).

Yandex has a similar platform, Yandex Games, where more than 35 thousand games are presented, played by more than 30 million people around the world, and 4 thousand developers publish their games, but there is no mention of DSA on its website.

Playhop was registered in Russia in June 2022 and the brand itself is international and protected in the US, Canada and in the international WIPO database, according to data from Ipowner.

Yandex declined to comment.

lawyer’s opinion

As the lawyer and founder of the legal boutique ContractCreation by Kostromin Evgeniy Kostromin told RB.RU, it is important to understand that the entire chain of alienation of the exclusive right to the Playhop brand by alienating this right concerns the territory of Russia. This means that the rights to this trademark are valid only within Russia, regardless of the country of registration of the current copyright holder.

“This nuance allows us to talk about the reasons for such actions. There can be many reasons for alienation. From the standard ones (the owner lost interest in developing the brand, stopped its development, etc.) to the purely practical. For example, if the copyright holder understands that he will not use the Playhop trademark in Russia for more than three years from the date of publication of information about its registration (in this case, 06/01/2022, the brand is very young),” Kostromin said.

According to the lawyer, such a situation entails the risk of early extinction of the trademark at the initiative of any interested party, so the transfer of the trademark to the person who will use it is quite logical. Furthermore, if we talk about a subsidiary responsible for the business line whose development is planned under this brand.

“We should also not forget that in Russia a special procedure has been introduced for the sale of trademarks whose copyright holders belong to the list of hostile countries (Decree of the President of Russia of May 20, 2024 No. 430 – note of the lawyer). This is another case where permission from the government foreign investment control commission will be needed to carry out a transaction. And the money is transferred to O’s special account. But these rules do not apply to transactions carried out between two foreign persons,” the lawyer said.

Kostromin believes that if a brand will actively enter foreign markets or is planned to be sold to a foreign entity, then its sale to a subsidiary registered outside Russia is also logical, because the deal will not need to be approved.

“Therefore, I would not link the measures taken to the country of registration of the current copyright holder. This is rather an example of competent management of intellectual property in a group of companies, and the ultimate goal is to protect and preserve the brand,” concluded the expert.