Brands Update. January 2015

Although such practice is still rare, the recent decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine ("AMC") (as discussed below) confirms the opportunity to succeed in protection of rights in the trade dress of a product, in particular, a label but not only a specific intellectual property object or their combination.

Specifically, when labeling mineral water of own production "AVIS AQUA" LLC ("Respondent") implemented the design (above, below label) that is confusingly similar to the label (above, upper label) used by "DRINKS PLUS" LLC ("Applicant") for its mineral water since 2010. Consequently, the Applicant asserted that the Respondent took unfair advantage in the mineral water market, given also the fact of significant investments of the Applicant in the advertising of own mineral water.