Courts strengthen position re international trademark
exhaustion principle in Ukraine
The Kyiv City Commercial Court (the "Court") has
recently ruled that using a trademark in promotional materials and
by placing it on a web-site (SK note: e-shop) with the purpose of
indentifying the genuine products labelled with such trademark
cannot be treated as infringement of rights of a trademark holder.
The Court also pointed out that the respondent does not use the
trademark for labelling its own products, but only for promotion
and sale of genuine products.
This decision is currently perceived as an additional reason to
believe that there is international exhaustion of trademark rights
in Ukraine. It should be emphasized that the Ukrainian Trademark
Law is not certain with respect to the trademark exhaustion
principle in Ukraine. Thus, this legal gap is currently filled by
court practice.
