One Entertainment, the owner of the famous cartoon Peppa Pig has succeeded in protecting its lucrative intellectual property after it was deprived of its right by a trial that took place in March at a Russian commercial court in Kirov.
A lawsuit was filed in Russia in September 2021 against a Russian individual who was selling counterfeit figurines from the Peppa Pig series.
The lawsuit was dismissed by the court as the judge ruled that the lawsuit would be considered to have been filed in bad faith as the plaintiff was a UK resident and citizen.
In the background of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, this would become a caveat in the plaintiff’s attempt to protect their rights as UK had placed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The judge stated that intellectual property rights, except patents, would not be recognized in Russia anymore and as a response to the sanctions.
This judgement caused a lot of worry for non-Russian intellectual property holders as other lucrative IP holders could face losses by the infringement of their rights in Russia.
However, this issue was recently resolved when One Entertainment appealed to the Second Appeal Commercial Court where the Kirov judgement was overruled.
The plaintiff argued that a legal entity from a sanctioning country cannot be denied judicial protection of rights and legal interest must be protected in order to correctly exercise the law of the land.
Denial of rights that have been guaranteed by local substantive and procedural law would be an incorrect application of the same. The defendant maintained the non-enforcement of the rights of a legal entity from a sanctioning country.
The judgement came in the favor of One Entertainment and the act of infringement by the defendant was recognized and half the compensation was granted, which amounted to $370.
Comments