Russian court bans Scientology church due to trademark use

A Russian court has ordered a Church of Scientology branch in Moscow to close after a dispute over its registered US trademarks.

The Moscow City Court backed calls from Russia’s Ministry of Justice to close the church after accepting the department’s argument that the church cannot call itself a religious organisation if it owns a registered trademark.

The ruling by the court, the city’s highest, came after a lower court dismissed the church’s appeal against the government’s decision to not register it as a religious organisation.

News service RT reported that the justice ministry said that the church’s representatives had “many legal conflicts by restricting the religious freedom through the use of trademarks”.

“So it turns out a commercial partnership was spreading the religion, while religion can only be spread by religious organisations,” the ministry said, adding that the church should instead be regulated by consumer protection laws.

There are several Scientology-related trademarks registered at the US Patent and Trademark Office, including for ‘Scientology’ and ‘First independent church of Scientology’.

The church was created by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard in the 1950s and is based in Los Angeles, California. Its well-known followers include Hollywood actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta.