German OBI demands that the Russian network stop using its brand

Former owner of the OBI construction hypermarket chain in Russia, the German OBI GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG filed a claim with the Moscow Region Arbitration Court against OBI Franchising Center LLC to impose a ban on the use of its trademarks. This follows from the published court ruling. The application itself was submitted on November 9, it was accepted for consideration, and preliminary hearings are scheduled for January 10, 2024.

From the court materials it follows that we are talking about two international verbal trademarks – obi and OBI (they were registered in 2011 and 2015 and are valid in Russia until 2031 and 2025, respectively), as well as the use of obi in the domain name of the website. ru. The court, at the request of the German company, has already taken interim measures, prohibiting the defendant, as well as the domain name registrar JSC RSITs, from taking any actions in relation to the obi.ru domain until the end of the proceedings. Representative of the German OBI GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG told Vedomosti that the Russian network “ignored the demand to stop the illegal use of trademarks, which continues to this day.” He did not specify whether the copyright holder would seek compensation.