People in Russia allowed to register trademarks

According to Izvestia, the Ministry of Economic Development has prepared amendments to the Civil Code so that self-employed citizens can register their own trademarks in Rospatent in Russia. Currently only legal entities or individual entrepreneurs can do this.

The Ministry of Economic Development expects that this initiative will help promote business projects of self-employed citizens, especially those who develop their personal brand. The ministry clarified that there are currently 3.9 million self-employed people registered in Russia.

The draft law has already been submitted to the State Duma by the Ministry of Economic Development. In the best case, the self-employed will be able to start registering their trademarks no earlier than 2023. In 2022 Rospatent will work on adapting its IT infrastructure for this draft law.

The Ministry of Economic Development reminded that as a trademark citizens will be able to choose a slogan, nickname, logo, melody and other means that allow them to distinguish their goods and enable customers to recognize them, increasing sales of their services or goods.

Experts told the publication that even freelance designers and programmers, as well as nannies and tutors, will be able to develop and register their own trademarks. According to them, these changes “will allow the self-employed to legally individualize their products and ensure judicial protection of their trademark rights.”

Rospatent said that each trademark is registered with the agency and a certificate is issued for it. To obtain a trademark, the self-employed will need to submit an application for state registration, indicating the necessary numbers under the International Classification of Goods and Services, and pay the required fees. The issuance of a trademark is not quick – providing such a service through the Gosuslugi portal with all checks takes more than 18 months.