A brand name is an intellectual property that you most likely own. We will talk about the main legal subtleties below.

A brand name is one of the most common pieces of intellectual property.

However, protecting the exclusive right to a company name is a rather unpopular undertaking. For example, according to data obtained from the website “kad.arbitr.ru”, for the period from January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2025, arbitration courts issued only 307 judicial acts in cases of protection of the exclusive right to a company name. For comparison, during the same period, 24,197 judicial acts were issued in cases of protection of the exclusive right to a trademark.

This situation is probably due, firstly, to the “ignorance” of copyright holders about the existence of an exclusive right to a company name, and secondly, to very rare situations of actual violation of the exclusive right to a company name.

We will talk about the main legal subtleties of a company name below in the “question-answer” form.  

First question: what is a brand name?

Answer: A brand name is an object of intellectual property that belongs to a legal entity that is a commercial organization and individualizes this legal entity itself.

A company name belongs only to a commercial organization, it is inalienable and includes an indication of its organizational and legal form and the actual name of the commercial organization (the so-called arbitrary part of the company name), which cannot consist only of words denoting the type of activity (clause 2 of Article 1473 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

For example, the company name is LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY "ROMASHKA", and it consists of:

Second question: how to obtain the exclusive right to a company name?

Answer: The exclusive right to a company name arises only due to the state registration of a commercial organization.

Third question: how can you use a brand name?

Answer: a company name can be used in any way that does not contradict the law, including by indicating it on signs, forms, invoices and other documentation, in announcements and advertising, on goods or their packaging, on the Internet.

Fourth question: how can the right to a trade name be violated?

Answer: With regard to business names, the principle of “seniority” applies, which implies that the use of a business name with an earlier registration date (senior name) in relation to a specific type of business activity makes it impossible to use a similar business name in relation to the same business activity.

Thus, the right to a business name may be violated by another legal entity that uses a similar business name to carry out the same business activity as the copyright holder.

Fifth question: what is the penalty for violating the exclusive right to a company name?

Answer: The offender must, at his own discretion, stop using the trade name in relation to activities similar to those carried out by the copyright holder or change his trade name

In addition, it is possible to recover damages for violation of the exclusive right to a company name.

Milyukov Sergey

Source: RBC