Competence of the Russian Intellectual Property Rights Court in Trademark Cases

Trademark cases are some of the most complicated cases that are heard in commercial courts, thereby in 2013 the first specialized court - the Intellectual Property Rights Court was established. The main purpose of the study is to give a comprehensive understanding of the trial in the Intellectual Property Rights Court when the subject matter is the rights to the trademark. However, other state bodies are entitled to resolve trademark cases too. Therefore, the issue of delimitation of their jurisdiction with the judicial protection of rights to trademark is significant to analyze. The paper examines the history of the court’s establishment and the categories of cases, which are heard in the Intellectual Property Rights Court in different instances. Special attention is paid to the challenging of non-normative legal acts of the Rospatent and antitrust authorities, in which jurisdiction trademark cases are involved too. The features of the claimant’s and the defendant’s status and special characteristics of evidence, including opinion surveys, have been analyzed. The main results of the study are the clarification of the delimitation of the competence of the Intellectual Property Rights Court and the jurisdiction of the Rospatent and the antitrust authorities to resolve trademark disputes, on the basis of which an algorithm for choosing the trademark holder a specific authority to most successfully protect their rights. Also, the essence of legitimate interest in trademark cases was studied too. The discovery was the determination of the specialist’s status as an independent person and as an employee of the court. Also, in the work, the types of completing the consideration of the case are identified.