„Vazrazhdane“ political party boldly invades the sphere of intellectual property!
I present to you data from the State Register of Trademarks, maintained by the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. „Kostya Kopeykin“ trademark was applied for by Deyan Nikolov, Secretary of „Vazrazhdane“-Sofia, through lawyer Petar Petrov – Deputy Chairman of the party. The trademark is applied for registration for goods and services in classes 16, 25, 26, 35, 38, 41, 45.
It is a well-known fact that the leader of „Vazrazhdane“ – Kostadin Kostadinov received the nickname „Kostya Kopeykin“, with which he is ridiculed in social networks. There is also a page on Facebook „Kopeykin“ that ironizes him, his party and their voters. It took me a while to figure out what the purpose of this request was, and in the end the answer I found was one – ignorance of the matter governing trademark rights.
Probably, the leader of „Vazrazhdane“ thinks that, owning the trademark „Kostya Kopeykin“, he can prohibit third parties from using this verbal element and start some legal battles. It is good to clarify that this is not the case at all. A trademark does not give absolute rights to the element – otherwise there would be no free words left in the spoken language. The trademark provides protection to the merchant, ensuring that a third party does not have the right to use this element in its commercial activity, offering goods and services similar to those claimed by the trademark owner.
Let’s pay attention to the list from the Nice Classification in the registration request. It includes many goods and services such as: printed materials, clothing, services related to commercial transactions, advertising and marketing, telecommunications, media, training, legal services and much more. The complete list can be found in the Register of Civil Servants. At first glance, one would think that the mark cannot be used in print or in the media. However, this is far from the case. If you do not own an online media outlet called Kostya Kopeikin, or if you do not name your advertising agency after that, or if you do not sell telecommunication services under this brand, you are not violating the rights of applicant Deyan Nikolov.
An important point in the event of litigation would be the fact of the actual use of the trademark. If it was not used as part of the applicant’s commercial activity, which I doubt it is, then the legal claims would be unfounded. Actual use is an element of the factual composition of infringement claims under both the Trademarks and Geographical Indications Act and the EU Trademark Regulation 2017/1001.
The norms related to trademarks, although collected in only one law at the national level, form an extremely complex matter that requires knowledge of the practice of national and European agencies, as well as the extremely rich case-law. For more questions and consultations, you can contact me at the contact details provided on the page.
