MOSCOW, Jan 28The Court for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) refused the most famous ex-soloist of the popular musical group Laskovyi May in Russia in the past, Yuri Shatunov, who challenged the decision of Rospatent, which rejected his objection to the registration of the trademark Laskovyi May back in 2003, follows from the operative part of the court decision published on Friday. The department then registered the disputed brand in the name of the Central Creative Studio for Gifted Children «Tender May» (Sochi). Now the exclusive rights to it belong to the individual entrepreneur Ruslan Filatov. The trademark is valid for seven classes of goods — cosmetics, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, confectionery, alcoholic beverages, etc. — and four classes of services — hosting websites, restaurants, hotels, baths, etc. Shatunov asked to cancel the registration, but Rospatent, by its decision of January 29, 2021, refused him.January 14, 16:06CultureYuri Shatunov released a video for a new songThe ex-soloist of «Tender May» filed a lawsuit in May 2021. At the same time, he challenged the second similar decision of Rospatent in respect of another sign «Tender May», also registered in 2003, but for 27 classes of goods and eight classes of services. In that case, the applicant’s claims were already rejected by two SIP courts. According to Shatunov, the registration of brands was in violation of the norm of the Civil Code, which prohibits the registration as trademarks of designations that are identical to “the name of a work of science, literature or art, a character or a quote from such a work” without the consent of the copyright holder. As Shatunov noted, the words «Tender May» are a quote from the song «Summer» by the author Sergei Kuznetsov, who was not asked for consent and who in 2019 transferred the rights to this song to Shatunov. Rospatent and the court, rejecting the objections of the ex-soloist, agreed with Filatov's arguments. He presented court decisions in Stavropol and the Krasnodar Territory in 2005 and 2016, confirming that the rights to all the songs of «Tender May» belonged to the group's producer Andrei Razin since 1992, and then passed to Filatov. Rospatent and the court recognized Shatunov as a disinterested person to challenge the registration of brands. Laskovy May is a musical group created in 1986 at the Orenburg boarding school No. 2 by the head of the music circle Kuznetsov with the participation of 13-year-old student Shatunov. Success came to the group after it was noticed by Razin, who worked as the administrator of the Mirage group. «Tender May» with soloist Shatunov was wildly popular at the end of the 80s, but then the group broke up. 24CultureYuri Shatunov sang «About White Roses»
