The French Givenchy has submitted an application to Rospatent to work in the markets

According to the application, Givenchy in Russia intends to protect its exclusive rights in classes of goods and services 09, 14, 18, 25, 35. The company is registering the last class, which regulates the use of the brand in the markets , in Russia. for the first time, Alina Sidorova, patent attorney at the Online company, explained to RB.RU.

• In class 35 of the ICGS, the French Givenchy assigned for registration the retail and sales services through online stores of perfumes, clothing, shoes, hats, textiles, leather goods and imitation leather, bags, glasses and sunglasses , jewelry and watches. The brand also requests exclusive rights to promote products for third parties, including non-financial support for events and organizations, mediation, consumer consultation, exhibitions for commercial or promotional purposes, fashion shows, production of promotional films and Givenchy window services.

According to Sidorova, previously the trademark was protected only in relation to glasses. Legal protection will now be extended to headphones, tablets, phone straps and other products.

Givenchy specializes in the production of clothing, shoes, accessories and perfumes, but officially does not supply anything to Russia. At the same time, the company’s products can be found in most chain stores in Russia, as well as in markets. At Wildberries you can find more than 22 thousand products made to order from Givenchy. Ozon also features hundreds of product options; some cards, for example, with eau de parfum from a French luxury brand for 600-700 rubles, are marked with the “Honest Mark” brand. RB.RU sent requests to Ozon and Wildberries.

Registration of rights in Rospatent will give the company the opportunity to return to the Russian markets, says Maxim Popov, founder of the Telegram project “Development in markets”, seller. “The guys want to make sure they can fully sell their brand in the markets. They will also have the opportunity to transfer rights to subsidiaries or branches, for example by registering them as consulting services and supervising them. Even taking into account the fact that they left Russia with permission from Rospatent, they will be able to receive money, for example, by consulting their subsidiaries. As a result, the main company will become a kind of layer to then trade freely through other companies,” the expert suggested.

He added that the brand will have the opportunity to “crush those who sell non-original products” and sell Givenchy products without permission. “Those who now sell this brand without documents may have problems,” Popov concluded.

Despite LVMH’s departure, Givenchy products remain present on the Russian market through various channels, including large retail chains, cosmetics stores and online platforms. Some products arrive through the parallel import mechanism and others may be leftovers from warehouses, said Yuri Brisov, partner at Digital & Analogue Partners.

He added that the current situation illustrates the legal vacuum in the field of intellectual property protection in Russia in the context of sanctions. In fact, there has been a massive distribution of counterfeit Givenchy products, which in scale even exceeds the practices of the 1990s, Brisov said.

For his part, Maxim Ali, a partner at intellectual property practice Comply, said blocking sellers from Givenchy products won’t necessarily happen, even if lawsuits are filed. “The line in these disputes can be very thin. “Apparently, to be on the safe side, Givenchy tried to be as detailed as possible in describing the services on their app,” Ali said.

The expert urged not to forget about the “exhaustion of rights” of a brand. “If a product is legally imported into Russia and is original, then it can be sold, since the right to a trademark ceases to block transactions with goods. Legal import is possible without the consent of Givenchy as the copyright holder: parallel import into Russia of several categories of its products is allowed. Of course, the products have to be original,” Ali added.

Vyacheslav Igumnov, a lawyer at the intellectual property firm of Kosenkov and Suvorov, confirmed that a class 35 trademark does not prohibit the sale of original products imported through parallel imports, but only prevents the activity of selling third-party products such as a store or market. .

According to Eldar Guliyev, head of the Intellectual Property department at AB KIAP, the registration of the Givenсhy trademark will be an additional tool in the fight against unauthorized online stores. “If we see that Givenchy cosmetics are sold on an online platform, they are most likely counterfeit. In this case, registering a trademark in class 35 will be of great help in the fight against infringers,” the expert concluded.

• In March 2022, after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the LVMH holding company announced its withdrawal from Russia.
• In October, Rospatent received a number of applications to register trademarks and images of products of the French company Louis Vuitton (like Givenchy, it operates as part of LVMH). The applicant is hidden, but in several applications he is marked with the FR symbol, which means he belongs to France.

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