Trade name. What is a brand name of a product examples

Brand name is a means of individualization of a legal entity, which is commercial organization.

Features of brand names include the following:

1) the purpose of a company name is to individualize a subject - a legal entity, which can only be a commercial organization. Subjects of rights to brand name can not be structural units legal entities, in particular branches, representative offices, etc. Individual entrepreneurs without forming a legal entity cannot acquire the right to a company name;

2) the company name must be permanent and unchanging, retaining its name even when the rights to shares (shares) in the authorized capital, share capital, as well as property are transferred from one legal entity to another;

3) the brand name must not mislead the consumer;

4) the exclusive right to a company name, as a rule, is of an indefinite nature and arises from the moment of state registration of a legal entity.

5) a legal entity can have only one company name, in contrast to other means of individualization. The corporate name includes an indication of the organizational and legal form of the legal entity and a distinctive element, which represents “the actual name of the legal entity.”

No special registration is required to create rights to a company name. The constituent documents of a legal entity, the application for state registration of a legal entity must indicate its name (full) and, if desired, an abbreviated one;

Trademark - a designation that serves to individualize goods of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs is recognized as an exclusive right, certified by a trademark certificate.

Service marks- designations that serve to individualize the work performed by legal entities or individual entrepreneurs or the services they provide.

Along with the norms of the Civil Code, the procedure for registering trademarks is regulated by by-laws normative act- Rules for the preparation, submission and consideration of applications for registration of a trademark and service mark, approved. By Order of Rospatent dated 03/05/2003 N 32

An application for registration of a trademark is traditionally a document that contains the will of a person to verify the compliance of his designation with the requirements of trademark law, i.e. for examination of the applied for designation in order to obtain the exclusive right to a trademark, and from which begins a multi-stage process aimed at establishing the possibility of registering a trademark.

Clause 1 of Art. 1492 of the Civil Code determines the circle of persons who may be subjects of the right to file an application for a trademark and subsequently subjects of the exclusive right to a trademark.

At the stage of preparing and drawing up the application, the applicant must decide on the list of goods for which state registration will be valid

To the signs appellation of origin of goods:

1. The appellation of origin of a product is the name of a geographical entity.

2. The presence of a characteristic geographical environment, including natural conditions and/or human factors.

3. The presence of special properties of the product, marked with the appellation of origin of the product.

4. Functional dependence of the special properties of the product on the geographic environment.

Unlike a trademark, the appellation of origin of a product, in addition to being distinctive, also serves as a guarantee of certain properties of the product, thereby ensuring its additional attractiveness for consumers. Considering that such goods can be produced by an indefinite number of business entities, the Civil Code provides for exclusive rights for all producers of goods.

In paragraph 1 of Art. 1518 Civil Code established mandatory requirement For the emergence of an exclusive right to the appellation of origin of a product, state registration with Rospatent is required.

Citizens and legal entities. Unlike trademark rights holders, the rights holder in in this case Not only an individual entrepreneur can act, but also a citizen who is not registered as such. The appellation of origin of the goods may be registered in the name of foreign citizen, stateless persons. Citizens permanently residing outside the territory Russian Federation, and foreign legal entities can apply through patent attorneys, registered with Rospatent, if international treaty The Russian Federation does not provide otherwise.

At the stage of opening or registering a company, almost every businessman is faced with an ambiguous issue, which is the choice of a corporate name for a legal entity. The well-known proverb “what you call a ship, so you will sail on it” reflects only one side of the essence of this issue.

The name of the company is the most important attribute, a means of individualization, on which both the reputation of the company, the correctness of its perception from the outside, and further development in general depend. That is why brand name The organization should be thoughtful, reflect, if possible, the direction of its activities and be easy to understand.

The same criterion is also observed in the Trade Register Regulations, Article 2 of which, with reference to proof of identity, states that when the identity of a legal entity must be recorded in the inscription, among other things, the following data: º Company name or denomination.

In short, social reason or signature is the subjective denomination of a mercantile society and, necessarily, personalists who, being legal entities with a personality distinct from one of their partners, act in social and economic life under own name. Capital companies, on the other hand, may adopt a subjective name or social name, or an objective name or social denomination.

It is indicated in the concluded contracts, primary documentation, letterhead and other documents. The print also contains complete brand name, both for individual entrepreneurs and legal entities. In the first case, the full name of the entrepreneur is indicated.

The law prescribes a list of requirements that must be met when choosing a name. Let's look at them in more detail.

In the Commercial Code and, in particular, in the regulation of collective and limited partnerships the relationship between a company's brand name and its liability seems clear. In personalistic societies, it is known that partners do not take advantage of the limitation of liability for social debts, unlike what happens in capital companies in which partners do not respond personally to social debts. For this reason collective company revolves under the name of all its partners, some of them or one, adding in these last two cases names or names that are expressed by the words "and Company".

Brand name requirements

1. Uniqueness. Repetitions are not allowed, that is, choosing a name under which another company is already registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. This leads to failure tax office in state registration and additional loss of time and effort to change the name and re-register documents. As practice shows, the best way out of a situation of this nature is to check the future name for uniqueness with the help of specialized organizations.
2. Structure. The full name must contain an indication of the legal form and the corresponding name of the company.
3. The ability to have an abbreviated form of the name in Russian (in most cases an abbreviation of the full form), which is not mandatory, unlike the full name.
4. Brand name companies are also allowed in foreign languages, as an additional name, correlated with official name in Russian, included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
5. statistics codes;
6. other documents.

There are a number of additional prohibitions regarding words that cannot be used as components of the name of an organization. These include:

The name of the company consists of a collective name and in this collective name, all or some of the partners, cannot include a person outside the company. If he does, he will respond together. Therefore, the corporate name or its use implies personal liability. Indeed, in personal societies, to which the Commercial Code and commercial regulation refer to the expression “social intelligence”, partners respond personally to social obligations, therefore it is said that the presence of a company name in a company implies personal, unlimited and joint liability of the partners included in it.

• Full, abbreviated, and derivatives of names foreign countries.
• Full or abbreviated names of organs state power And local government.
• Words containing profanity or contrary to the principles of humanity and morality.
• Names of cities and constituent entities of the Russian Federation for enterprises that are not unitary.
• The words “Russia” or “Russian Federation” can only be used with permission obtained in a special manner.
• Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities with a period of issuance of no more than 30 calendar days;
• Application and agreement for opening a current account;
• Notarized bank card;
• other documents.

Procedure for registering a company name

The chosen name is fixed at the stage of opening the company and going through all established stages related to registration. In accordance with Chapter 76 Civil Code RF brand name The company is prescribed in the Charter, the main constituent document, and is included in list of Unified State Register of Legal Entities during the state registration procedure of an organization.

In addition, such liability extends to third parties or strangers to the company who allow their name to be included in the company name and partners whose name should not be included and still tolerate it. Thus, as one author noted, the name of the company is completely equivalent to the signature of each of the partners. He forces them all as if everyone had actually signed up.

The company name is a formula of the names of all or some of the partners, with the addition of the words “and company”. The expression "and company" or "and company" replaces the name of the other collective partners that form the society; that is, such expression is generally understood by members whose names were not expressly included in the company name.

Each organization has the possibility of the exclusive right to use its name entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. This opportunity arises at the time of making an entry in the register of legal entities and is valid until the completion of the activity. At the same time, alienation or transfer for temporary use of such rights is prohibited.

Only the names, all or some of them, of the collective partners can constitute the name of the company. Therefore in social name Only the names of those people who have the quality of partners of personalistic commercialism can appear. If the partners are individuals or individuals, it must include their names; if there is a legal entity between the partners, that must also appear, or the name of one of the partners who is an individual, plus the words "and company", including the name of the legal entity and the expression "and company".

Mandatory registration in authorized body subject to a change in the company's corporate name, made in voluntarily. To do this, the established list of documents is submitted to the tax office and the change is made in as usual making changes to constituent documents and Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

In short, the collective name represents the reason or social signature, in which the name of a person who does not belong to the company can never be included and, if so, those who do not belong to the company include their name in the business name, will be subject to joint and several liabilities, without prejudice to the offender, if there is a place.

The company name identifies the company primarily with customers, suppliers, administrations and the general public. The company name is the primary means of identifying companies from their inception until the end of their life. It stems from its mention in the articles of association, confirmed by the registration of the company and can be developed by changing the articles of association. It should not be confused with a company name, trade name, brand name, or domain name, among others. The free design of a corporate name includes some restrictions of a formal nature, but also, and above all, of a preventive nature, in order to legitimize its use in relation to third parties.

• Themes:
• Protection of the rights and interests of the entrepreneur

There are a lot of nuances in registering a company, so it’s better not to engage in amateur activities. To understand what a “brand” is with legal point view, what options are there for registering it and where to start, we turned to our expert Mikhail Khokholkov, head of the IT/IP &Media practice law firm"ENSO" (Ekaterinburg).

Sole Proprietorship Name

The concept of obligation legally corresponds to individual commercial, craft or liberal obligations, which do not have legal personality and therefore do not have the right to use and own a name that concerns only companies. The sole owner's name can be the creator's middle name, a pseudonym, a third party's last name, or a fancy name.

Characteristics of a brand name

Corporations have an important common feature with individuals: a legal personality that qualifies as “moral” for the former. This quality gives them certain attributes similar to those of natural persons, especially the name. The company name serves to identify the legal entity and thus distinguish it from other legal entities and from its own shareholders or shareholders. A company name can be used to identify a company, for example, based on practical factors such as its location, the names of its partners or shareholders.

Brand concept

The legal term “brand” does not exist in Russian legislation. Currently, a brand is understood as a certain symbol, visual or verbal, characterizing certain properties and values ​​for the consumer. At the consumer level, a brand is often considered a trademark. And this is not entirely correct. A trademark acquires legal protection from the moment of its registration, and a brand can exist without it.

Proximity of company name and company name

Both title and company name are used to identify companies. However, they do not belong to the same types of companies: the company name is mandatory for companies carrying out civic activities, while the company name refers mainly to those who carry out commercial activities. In particular, the name refers to civil societies, excluding professional ones civil societies, by the name of one or more of its partners, taken alone or accompanied by "and company": for these companies the name is optional.

Difference between brand, trade name, commercial designation, trademark

Corporate name of the commercial organization

Only a legal entity that is a commercial organization can have a company name. This name is contained in its constituent documents. The corporate name of a legal entity must contain an indication of its organizational and legal form and the actual name of the legal entity, which cannot consist only of words denoting the type of activity. The corporate name of a commercial organization can be full or abbreviated. An abbreviated name can, for example, be an abbreviation of the full name. For example, the full corporate name is: “Company with limited liability“Magazine about beautiful things”, and abbreviated as “LLC “ZhKV””.

Specifics of name, trade name, trade name, brand

Trade name, name, tradename And Domain name are distinctive features, but the name and other characters do not merge. "enterprise", in other words, the carrying on of a business, whereas the name of a company is primarily a company taken as a legal entity, structure or structure. The trade name may be mentioned in the Trade and Companies Register. Whereas the name of a legal entity is used to designate a legal entity, the name of a person can be used to territorial definition one of his commercial enterprises or businesses commonly accepted as a point of sale. the sign is primarily a sign or emblem of the latter's recognition with clients.

FACT!
Inclusion in the corporate name of a legal entity of the official name Russian Federation or Russia, as well as words derived from this name, is permitted only with a permit issued by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

The fact of registration of a legal entity in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, in essence, means the official confirmation of the exclusive right for the company to use its company name. From this moment, the same right to the corporate name of a commercial organization arises, which terminates only at the time of liquidation of the company (or when the name is changed).

Brands denote products or services, particularly of a company, while a name denotes the company that sells those products or services. It is attached to the company's products, their packaging or material support its services and serves to differentiate it from competitors' products.

Domain Name Specifications

Who is affected by the name?

The company name is mainly limited to professional corporations and commercial companies: limited liability company, limited liability partnership, joint stock company, limited liability company, general partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, liberal limited liability company, anonymous private company limited liability, liberal limited partnership, limited by shares, liberal limited liability company.

Commercial name of individual entrepreneur and LLC

Legal entities, including non-profit organizations, as well as individual entrepreneurs may use in their activities commercial designations that are not company names and are not subject to mandatory inclusion in the constituent documents and a single State Register legal entities. The main difference between a trade name and a trade designation is that the trade name can only have a legal entity, A commercial designation can use and non-profit organizations, and individual entrepreneurs. For example, the commercial name of an individual entrepreneur or LLC may be as follows: “Zefir Beauty Salon.”

The name is optional for civil societies other than professional civil societies, which are also identified by the company name. What are the classes of products and services? There are 45 classes, and each class corresponds to a group of products or services.

Once the term expires, it can be renewed within the next 10 years and ten years after ten years. Is it enough to have a registered Internet domain to have an exclusive name for your chosen name? No, often this is not enough. Here you will find basic information about each legal form of companies in Germany. We also offer comprehensive services for setting up companies and agencies in Germany, including advice on choosing the right one legal form, provision of a registered office, required registrations, analyzes and personal assistance when creating a company.

About the trademark

A trademark is a designation used to individualize goods (works or services) of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs. Exclusive right for a commercial designation, including the trade name of the copyright holder or its individual elements, arises and operates independently of the exclusive right to the trade name. The commercial designation or individual elements of this name can be used by the copyright holder in a trademark that belongs to him.

public corporation

Open Joint-Stock Company, as a personal company, associates members for the purpose of conducting related activities under a general title, with all shareholders being liable for the company's obligations indefinitely. It must therefore be registered in the Commercial Register in the court competent according to the registered office of the company. The application for registration must include the names of the shareholders, as well as their status and place of residence, the business name of the company, its registered office and the date of incorporation of the company.

FACT!
The commercial name of an individual entrepreneur or LLC included in a trademark is protected regardless of the protection of the trademark. Both a company name and a commercial designation can be used as a trademark. However legal protection a trademark will be acquired only at the time of its registration with Rospatent.

Verbal, figurative, dimensional and other designations or combinations thereof can be registered as trademarks. A trademark can be registered in any color or color combination.

A limited partnership is also personal company with some characteristics of a legal entity. Thus, for partners there is varying degrees responsibility. The various rights of companions also correspond to their various rights in society. Commanders cannot represent or act for the company and have limited rights control the company's activities.

Limited Liability Company

A limited liability company is a capital company and therefore a legal entity in which its shareholders commit capital for the purpose of joint business. It is especially used as a legal form for small and medium-sized enterprises. They are liable for their obligations only with the property of the company. A limited liability company is created under a social contract, which must be signed by all partners and notarized. Social contract may include provisions governing relations between shareholders and the internal mechanisms of the company.

Returning to the concept of a brand, having expanded on the concepts of a trademark, trade name and commercial designation, we can say that a brand includes all these three concepts.

Registration of trademarks in Russia

Of course, every entrepreneur must decide for himself whether he will go through the procedure of registering a trademark. The fact of registering a trademark in Russia provides legal protection - only you can use it when carrying out your activities in a certain industry. Also, without registering a trademark, you will not be able to expand your business through a franchise. The question of feasibility arises when determining the purpose of your business - if it is a short-term project with low turnover and without a plan further development, then registering a trademark will probably not be useful. Otherwise, I would recommend considering registering a trademark at the logo development stage.

Trademark registration procedure

The procedure for registering a trademark takes place in several stages:

• 1. Development of a trademark, logo.
• 2. Definition of ICGS classes ( International classification goods and services http://www.mktu.info/) The international classification of goods and services consists of 45 classes: from 1 to 34 classes of the IKTU are goods, and from 35 to 45 classes are services. For example, class 44 ICGS includes medical care, services in the field of hygiene and cosmetics.
• 3. Submitting an application for registration to Rospatent. At this stage, you pay the application fee and also describe your trademark in detail.
• 4. Rospatent examination of the application. The longest stage at which Rospatent checks whether your trademark can be registered, whether there are any confusingly similar already registered trademarks, whether your trademark is subject to registration at all. The stage takes from six months to a year, sometimes more.
• 5. Making a decision to register a trademark and issuing a certificate of registration of a trademark. In this case, you must pay a fee for the fact of registration and a fee for the certificate itself.

"Pitfalls" of registration

The procedure for registering a trademark may be refused if it does not meet the basic requirements, in particular, the mark does not have distinctiveness or consists only of the following elements:

1. which have come into general use to designate goods certain type;
2. which are generally accepted symbols and terms;
3. characterizing goods, including indicating their type, quality, quantity, property, purpose, value, as well as the time, place and method of their production or sale;
4. representing a form of goods that is determined solely or mainly by the property or purpose of the goods.

For example, you cannot register “beauty salon” as a trademark in the verbal form. But you will receive a refusal after the registration period has expired - that is, a year may pass from the date of filing your application, and during this time you are investing in promoting your trademark. In order to avoid such a problem, at the stage of developing your brand, which is planned to be registered as a trademark, it is necessary to avoid commonly used words or the names of goods or services of a certain type. Although such elements can be included in a trademark as unprotected elements, but if they do not occupy a dominant position in it.

There are a lot of nuances in registering a company, so it’s better not to engage in amateur activities. To understand what a “brand” is from a legal point of view, what options there are for registering it and where to start, we turned to our expert Mikhail Khokholkov, head of the IT/IP &Media practice at the law firm ENSO (Ekaterinburg).

Brand concept

The legal term "brand" in Russian legislation does not exist. Currently, a brand is understood as a certain symbol, visual or verbal, characterizing certain properties and values ​​for the consumer. At the consumer level, a brand is often considered a trademark. And this is not entirely correct. A trademark acquires legal protection from the moment of its registration, and a brand can exist without it.

Difference between brand, trade name, commercial designation, trademark

Corporate name of the commercial organization

Only a legal entity that is a commercial organization can have a company name. This name is contained in its constituent documents. The corporate name of a legal entity must contain an indication of its organizational and legal form and the actual name of the legal entity, which cannot consist only of words denoting the type of activity. The corporate name of a commercial organization can be full or abbreviated. An abbreviated name can, for example, be an abbreviation of the full name. For example, the full corporate name is: “Limited Liability Company “Magazine of Beautiful Things””, and the abbreviated name is “LLC “ZhKV””.

FACT!
Inclusion in the corporate name of a legal entity of the official name Russian Federation or Russia, as well as words derived from this name, is permitted only with a permit issued by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

The fact of registration of a legal entity in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, in essence, means the official confirmation of the exclusive right for the company to use its company name. From this moment, the same right to the corporate name of a commercial organization arises, which terminates only at the time of liquidation of the company (or when the name is changed).

Commercial name of individual entrepreneur and LLC

Legal entities, including non-profit organizations, as well as individual entrepreneurs, may use in their activities commercial designations that are not trade names and are not subject to mandatory inclusion in the constituent documents and the unified state register of legal entities. The main difference between a trade name and a trade designation is that the trade name can only have a legal entity, and the commercial designation can be used by both non-profit organizations and individual entrepreneurs. For example, commercial name An entrepreneur’s individual entrepreneur or LLC may be as follows: “Zefir Beauty Salon.”

About the trademark

A trademark is a designation used to individualize goods (works or services) of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs. The exclusive right to a commercial designation, including the trade name of the copyright holder or its individual elements, arises and operates independently of the exclusive right to the trade name. The commercial designation or individual elements of this name can be used by the copyright holder in a trademark that belongs to him.

FACT!
The commercial name of an individual entrepreneur or LLC included in a trademark is protected regardless of the protection of the trademark. Both a company name and a commercial designation can be used as a trademark. However, a trademark will acquire legal protection only at the time of its registration with Rospatent.

Verbal, figurative, dimensional and other designations or combinations thereof can be registered as trademarks. A trademark can be registered in any color or color combination.

Returning to the concept of a brand, having expanded on the concepts of a trademark, trade name and commercial designation, we can say that a brand includes all these three concepts.

Registration of trademarks in Russia

Of course, every entrepreneur must decide for himself whether he will go through the procedure of registering a trademark. The fact of registering a trademark in Russia provides legal protection - only you can use it when carrying out your activities in a certain industry. Also, without registering a trademark, you will not be able to expand your business through a franchise. The question of feasibility arises when determining the purpose of your business - if it is a short-term project with low turnover and without a plan for further development, then registering a trademark will probably not be useful. Otherwise, I would recommend considering registering a trademark at the logo development stage.

Trademark registration procedure

The procedure for registering a trademark takes place in several stages:

• 1. Development of a trademark, logo.
• 2. Definition of classes of the IKTU (International Classification of Goods and Services http://www.mktu.info/) The International Classification of Goods and Services consists of 45 classes: from 1 to 34 classes of the IKTU are goods, and from 35 to 45 classes are services. For example, class 44 of the ICGS includes medical care, hygiene and cosmetic services.
• 3. Submitting an application for registration to Rospatent. At this stage, you pay the application fee and also describe your trademark in detail.
• 4. Rospatent examination of the application. The longest stage at which Rospatent checks whether your trademark, are there any confusingly similar already registered trademarks, is your trademark subject to registration at all. The stage takes from six months to a year, sometimes more.
• 5. Making a decision to register a trademark and issuing a certificate of registration of a trademark. In this case, you must pay a fee for the fact of registration and a fee for the certificate itself.

"Pitfalls" of registration

The procedure for registering a trademark may be refused if it does not meet the basic requirements, in particular, the mark does not have distinctiveness or consists only of the following elements:

1. which have come into general use to designate goods of a certain type;
2. which are generally accepted symbols and terms;
3. characterizing goods, including indicating their type, quality, quantity, property, purpose, value, as well as the time, place and method of their production or sale;
4. representing a form of goods that is determined solely or mainly by the property or purpose of the goods.

For example, you cannot register “beauty salon” as a trademark in the verbal form. But you will receive a refusal after the registration period has expired - that is, a year may pass from the date of filing your application, and during this time you are investing in promoting your trademark. In order to avoid such a problem, at the stage of developing your brand, which is planned to be registered as a trademark, it is necessary to avoid commonly used words or the names of goods or services of a certain type. Although such elements can be included in a trademark as unprotected elements, but if they do not occupy a dominant position in it.

The legal entity, being a commercial organization, acts under its brand names (adidas, cola), the cut was determined in its establishing documents and included in the unit of state. register of legal entities under the state registration legal

A legal entity must have one full company name and has the right to have one abbreviated company name.

In the company we hire can not included: 1) official named foreign sovereign; 2) officially named federal org state. authorities, org state authorities of the Russian Federation and local self-government; 4) names of associations; If companies of the name of the legal entity do not comply with the requirement. the body carried out the state register of legal entities, has the right to bring a claim against such legal entity for changing the company name. A legal entity may use company names by indicating them on signs, forms, in advertisements and advertisements, on goods or their packaging, on the Internet. Alienation or granting to another person of the right to use a company name is not allowed. It is not allowed to use a legal company name that is identical to another legal entity. Having violated this rule, the legal entity is required, the legal owner is obliged, at his own discretion, to stop using it, and is also obliged to compensate for the losses caused.1 On the territory ii of the Russian Federation applies exclusively to the right to companies of the same name, including in the unit of state. registry of legal entities will exclude the right to companies under our name arises from the date of state registry of legal entities. Possess exclusive rights to the goods as a legal entity or individual entrepreneur.

T Ovarn sign- designated, serving for individual goods, performing work or providing services to a legal entity or fl. The State Register of Trademarks is carried out by the Federal Organization for Intellectual Property in the State register trademarks and service marks and a certificate is issued. As trademarks, you can register words, images, and other designations. The application for a product sign must be accompanied by 1. the charter of a collective mark, if the application is submitted for a collective mark 2. a description of the applied designation. 3. a list of goods, in relation to the covers The state registration of a trademark is requested. The rights of protection of a trademark may be terminated in the event of non-use of the trademark continuously for 3 years after its state registration. State Registry is not allowed as trademarks, identical or similar to 1 a well-known work of science, literature, a character, without the consent of the copyright owner, a pseudonym or a designation derived from them, 2 a portrait of a famous person, without the consent of this person; 3 trademarks of other persons.

The right to commercial means: The legal activity of enterprises and individual entrepreneurs can be used for the individualization of trade and commercial enterprises belonging to them, denoting that they do not have company names and are not subject to the obligation to be included in the established documents and the state register of legal entities. !!!= The owner of the right can use, with the exception of the right of commerce, to indicate by indicating it on signs, forms, invoices and other documentation, in announcements and advertising, on goods or their packaging, on the Internet. The right to a commercial designation will be excluded by transfer to another person only as part of an enterprise for the individualization of which such a designation is used.????On the territory of the Russian Federation, there is an exclusive right to a commercial designation used for the individualization of an enterprise located on the territory of the Russian Federation. =The exclusive right to a commercial designation is terminated if the copyright holder does not use it continuously for a year.=The exclusive right to a commercial designation, including the trade name of the copyright holder or its individual elements, arises and operates independently of the exclusive right to the trade name.=Commercial designation or individual elements of this name can be used by the copyright holder in his trademark. A commercial designation included in a trademark is protected independently of the protection of the trademark.

a person who is a commercial organization acts in civil circulation under its corporate name, which is determined in its constituent documents and is included in the unified state register of legal entities upon state registration of a legal entity. The corporate name of a legal entity must contain an indication of its organizational and legal form and the actual name of the legal entity, which cannot consist only of words denoting the type of activity. A legal entity must have one full company name and has the right to have one abbreviated company name in Russian. A legal entity also has the right to have one full company name and (or) one abbreviated company name in any language of the peoples of the Russian Federation and (or) foreign language. The corporate name of a legal entity cannot include: 1) full or abbreviated official names of foreign states, as well as words derived from such names; 2) full or abbreviated official names of federal government bodies, government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local government bodies ; 4) full or abbreviated names of public associations; 5) designations that contradict public interest, as well as the principles of humanity and morality. Brand name state unitary enterprise may contain an indication of the affiliation of such an enterprise with the Russian Federation and a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, respectively. Inclusion in the corporate the name of a legal entity with the official name Russian Federation or Russia, as well as words derived from this name, is permitted with a permit issued in the manner established by the Government RF. a legal entity has the exclusive right to use its corporate name as a means of individualization by any contrary to law method (exclusive right to a company name), including by indicating it on signs, forms, invoices and other documentation, in announcements and advertising, on goods or their packaging, on the Internet
On the territory of the Russian Federation there is an exclusive right to a company name included in the unified state register of legal entities. 2. Exclusive right to a company name arises from the date of state registration of a legal entity and terminates at the moment of exclusion of the company name from the unified state register of legal entities in connection with the termination of the legal entity or a change in its company name.

Trademark and service mark. 1. A trademark, that is, a designation used to individualize the goods of legal entities or individual entrepreneurs, is recognized as an exclusive right, certified by a trademark certificate.2. The rules of this Code on trademarks respectively apply to service marks, that is, to designations that serve to individualize the work performed by legal entities or individual entrepreneurs or the services they provide. The owner of an exceptional rights to a trademark The owner of the exclusive right to a trademark can be a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur. Action except rights to a trademark on the territory of the Russian Federation. On the territory of the Russian Federation there is an exclusive right to a trademark registered by a federal body executive power By intellectual property, as well as in other cases provided for by an international treaty of the Russian Federation.

State registration of a trademark. State registration of a trademark is carried out by the federal executive body for intellectual property in the State Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Russian Federation (State Register of Trademarks) in the manner established by articles 1503 and 1505 of this Code.

The person in whose name the trademark is registered (the copyright holder) has the exclusive right to use the trademark in accordance with Article 1229 of this Code in any way that does not contradict the law (exclusive right to a trademark), including the methods specified in paragraph 2 of this article. The copyright holder can dispose of the exclusive right to a trademark. Copyright holder for notification about his exclusive right to a trademark has the right to use a protection sign, which is placed next to the trademark, consists of Latin letter"R" or the Latin letter "R" in a circle<*>or the verbal designation “trademark” or “registered trademark” and indicates that the designation used is a trademark protected in the territory of the Russian Federation. Exclusive right The trademark is valid for ten years from the date of filing the application for state registration trademark in federal body executive power for intellectual property or in the case of registration of a trademark under a divisional application from the date of filing the initial application.

Commercial designation 1. Legal entities carrying out entrepreneurial activity(including non-profit organizations that are granted the right to carry out such activities in accordance with the law by their constituent documents), as well as individual entrepreneurs can use commercial designations that are not company names to individualize their trade, industrial and other enterprises (Article 132) and not subject to mandatory inclusion in the constituent documents and the unified state register of legal entities.2. A commercial designation can be used by the copyright holder to individualize one or more enterprises. To individualize one enterprise, two or more commercial designations cannot be used simultaneously. The copyright holder has the exclusive right to use a commercial designation as a means of individualizing his enterprise in any way that does not contradict the law (exclusive right to a commercial designation), including by indicating the commercial designation on signs, forms, invoices and other documentation, in announcements and advertising , on goods or their packaging, on the Internet, if such a designation has sufficient distinctive features and its use by the copyright holder to individualize his enterprise is known within a certain territory.

On the territory of the Russian Federation there is an exclusive right to a commercial designation used to individualize an enterprise located on the territory of the Russian Federation. 2. The exclusive right to a commercial designation is terminated if the copyright holder does not use it continuously for a year.

Related information.

Many entrepreneurs (both new and experienced) do not know the difference between a company name and a commercial designation. But this is completely different concepts, and there are significant differences in legal regulation these objects.

Both concepts refer to means of individualization that business entities use to be “special.” Let's try to understand their differences.

Differences in purpose and attachment

A company name is the name of an organization that is enshrined in its constituent documents. Initially, it is indicated in the application for registration of a legal entity. It can be full or abbreviated. For example, full name will be “Closed Joint Stock Company “Parquet”. Abbreviated form: “CJSC “Parquet”. Only legal entities, and only commercial ones, can have a company name. For obvious reasons, an individual entrepreneur does not have a business name.

Another concept is a commercial designation. It is used to individualize the company and is not included in the constituent documents. Both legal entities (along with a company name) and individual entrepreneurs can have it. For example, often according to documents economic activity led by IP Ivanov I.I. or Romashka LLC, but the signs on the premises say something completely different. This is a commercial designation.

It follows from this that a company name is usually used in relations with other business entities and with authorities. And the commercial designation is intended for consumers.