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7 August 2014Trademarks

‘Polish Vodka’ trademark bid rejected in Russia

A Russian appeals board has affirmed that a trademark for ‘Polish Vodka’, applied for by drinks maker Polska Wodka, should be rejected.

The Chamber for Patent Disputes, a division of the Russian Patent Office that handles appeals against patent and trademark decisions, rejected an appeal against an earlier rejection.

Polska Wodka had applied to the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, also known as Rospatent, to trademark the words in classes related to alcoholic beverages as well as advertising and management.

The proposed trademark would have also featured a logo with the letters ‘V’ and ‘P’.

Rospatent rejected the decision and the chamber upheld its ruling on Wednesday, (August 6), according to The Russian Legal Information Agency.

According to the chamber’s decision, ‘Polish’ and ‘Vodka’ were not protectable because ‘Vodka’ refers to a specific type of product.

Igor Motsnyi, partner at Motsnyi Legal Services in Moscow, said the board refused the mark because, in its opinion, the trademark was descriptive and devoid of distinctiveness in class 33, which covers alcohol.

“When it comes to a combination of product name, for example Vodka, and a geographic name, the Russian office is traditionally very strict and normally refuses such applications,” he told WIPR.

But a Polska Wodka spokesman said ‘Polish Vodka’ does not necessarily refer to a type of product but to a manufacturer’s specific product line.

The spokesman added that ‘Vodka’ does not refer to any advertising or sales service while ‘Polish’ only describes the origin of the company and its product.

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