Russian IP Court and Evaluating Evidence

During the Third International IP Forum, which took place in Moscow on February 13-14, 2015, the Russian IP Court judges gave some examples on how they evaluate evidence.

For instance, if a party submits public opinion poll results to prove the similarity of trademarks, the judges prefer to request additional evidence like the opinion poll forms. Judge Vitaliy Golofaev said that all judges are aware that conducting a public opinion poll requires significant amounts of time and money for one of the parties. In case the results of the poll are not clear and there are doubts about the accuracy, the poll forms and materials must be studied. Golofaev said the parties are not always ready to present the forms, and in that case the poll results should not be taken into account when issuing the final decision.

Another issue that comes up often in IP disputes is how to capture or create a record of the relevant web content. So far the safest way has been to notarize the printout of the content, but the notary public fees vary from EUR 200 to EUR 600 (and in some cases even more) per website. Head of Department of Analysis and Overview of Judicial Practice of the IP Court Dmitry Afanasiev said that the judges now accept the printouts from the Wayback Machine as an alternative to the notarized printouts. It was noted that the Russian PTO also accepts the printouts from the Wayback Machine as proofs supporting the claims. However, such practice is not usual for other arbitrazh courts.

By: Sitora Rakhmanova

For more information, please contact Sitora Rakhmanova at our Russia office.