Russian Domain Name Disputes Look Set To Become More Challenging

This article was originally published in IAM media.

What can trademark owners do in Russia when they find that another entity, most likely a cybersquatter, has obtained and registered a domain name that is identical or cleverly similar to its mark? Fortunately, Russian courts are quite sophisticated when it comes to handling this type of dispute – the case law is abundant and well developed and the vast majority of domain name disputes are resolved in the brand owner's favour. Further, Russian courts usually grant interim injunctions, which block all operations associated with the domain name during litigation. However, changes made at the end of 2019 to several procedural codes could make it more difficult, expensive and time intensive for trademark owners to obtain these domain names from infringing registrants who use Russia's country-code top-level domain '.ru'.