Source The tax authorities demanded that the Bashkir manufacturer change its name. The Arbitration Court of Bashkiria, at the request of the inter-district inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service, ordered the closed joint-stock company “Innovative Industrial Company” Rosneftekhim “” to change its name, removing the prefix “Ros” from it. In the opinion of the inspectorate, the letter combination evokes in consumers an association about the participation of the state in the activities of the company, while it does not have permission to use derivatives of the name of the country in the name. Lawyers call the court's decision legal.
The Arbitration Court of Bashkiria satisfied the claims of the Interdistrict Inspectorate No. 39 of the Federal Tax Service against the closed joint-stock company “Innovative Industrial Company” Rosneftekhim “” on the obligation to change the name, removing the prefix “Ros” from it.
According to the tax service, the abbreviation “Ros” in the company's name is “a stable well-known letter combination, shortened from the words” Russian “,” Russia “, causing a strong association of the consumer with the participation of the state in the activities of the organization.” The company does not have permission to use this combination, the text of the decision says, thereby violating the article of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the company name (clause 4 of article 1473 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Rosneftekhim to voluntarily change the name, but the letter sent to the address of the legal entity was returned after the expiration of the storage period. In this regard, in June of this year, the inter-district inspection of the Federal Tax Service appealed to the court.
The defendant's representative did not participate in the court hearings, the company did not provide a response to the claim, follows from the court decision.
• ZAO Innovative Industrial Company Rosneftekhim, according to SPARK-Interfax, was registered in Ufa in 2004. The company specializes in the development and production of reagents used in the mining, mining and processing and oil and gas industries: it produces preventive agents and lubricants for the processing of mining and transport equipment, flotation reagents for coal enrichment, a dust binder and a reagent for the prevention of endogenous fires. In 2021, the company's revenue amounted to 579 million rubles, net profit – 43.6 million rubles.
Satisfying the requirements of the tax service, the court pointed out that the constituent documents of the legal entity do not contain information that the word “Rosneftekhim” is a transcription from a foreign language and is not an independent word in the Russian language, which means it consists of the first syllable of the word “Russia” and abbreviations “oil” and “chemical”, the court's decision says. At the same time, permission to use the words “Russia” and “Russian Federation” and their derivatives in the corporate name of the company is issued by the federal Ministry of Justice. br />
According to Maxim Labzin, senior partner at Intellect law firm, the court's decision is legal and fully consistent with judicial practice. “The Intellectual Property Court constantly upholds such decisions of lower courts. In the same way, disputes were resolved over such, for example, brand names as Ros-Trade, Rosintekh, Rosinvest, RosGosServis, Avtoros, Rosdorsnabzhenie and many others,” he noted.
“Hypothetically, the defendant can achieve the annulment of the decision of the arbitration court if he provides either evidence that he has permission from the Ministry of Justice, or that “Ros” as part of the company name is not formed from “Russia”, but is an abbreviation for another word, but to prove it will be quite difficult and for this at least you need to convince the court of the need for an independent linguistic examination,” says Yury Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions.
Aidar Mullanurov, managing partner of the Barrister agency, believes that names can cause tangible problems if the company has registered trademarks of the same name or license agreements. “If the ban stands in the courts, the copyright holder will have to make changes to the marketing campaign,” the expert notes. “There will be costs to replace branded accessories, souvenirs, workwear, cars will have to be repainted and the like.” There should be no significant legal negative consequences for the enterprise, Mr. Mullanurov believes. “Changing the name does not entail the termination of the concluded contracts or the denial of admission to participate in new purchases. Renaming a firm can be painful for those who work with customers. For a business that is not focused on individuals, a name change should not have significant negative consequences, ”the source added.
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