PlayStation gives a sign – Kommersant

Since the beginning of the year, Sony’s video game division has filed more brand protection claims in Russia than in the same period of full-fledged presence in the country. In court decisions, we are talking about compensation for the sale of fake PlayStations on Wildberries. Lawyers attribute Sony’s actions to a desire to protect its reputation, but note that the Russian market remains toxic for most copyright holders.

Since the beginning of the year, Japanese Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE; is responsible for the release of PlayStation game consoles) has filed 25 lawsuits against individual entrepreneurs in Russian arbitration courts in Russia since the beginning of the year, ten of them in August, Kommersant found. All cases in which documents have been published in the Arbitration Case File relate to infringement of PlayStation trademarks. In at least two cases considered by the Moscow Arbitration Court, it was about the recovery of compensation in connection with the sale of counterfeit gamepads on Wildberries. In two cases, the courts satisfied the claims in full, in three – in part, the rest of the cases are being considered.

In 2022, SIE filed only one such claim with the Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Territory. The number of lawsuits filed since the beginning of 2023 exceeds even the level typical of Sony subsidiaries in the years before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. So, in 2013, the courts considered 11 lawsuits from the predecessor of SIE in Europe – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) – against individual entrepreneurs and electronics stores. In subsequent years, there were fewer claims from Sony subsidiaries, including Russia’s Sony Electronics.

In the cards of two claims, which are considered in the Bryansk and Novosibirsk regions, the Association for Combating Computer Crime (APKP) is indicated as a co-plaintiff. There were no other cases where the ACCP would act as a plaintiff in 2023. The association, according to its website, unites 1C-SoftKlab, Sony Electronics, SIE, Microsoft and Nintendo. “Kommersant” failed to contact the APCP.

Other foreign companies also continue to protect their intellectual property in Russia. One of the most active plaintiffs in patent disputes in 2022 was Harman (owned by South Korean Samsung, owns the JBL brand). Now the Moscow Arbitration Court is considering a case against the manufacturer of music centers Vipe (see “Kommersant” dated August 25).

Wildberries said that they “monitor” the range of goods around the clock, and sellers can resolve disputes about suspicions of counterfeiting using the site’s own “digital arbitration”. The SIE did not answer “b”.

The legalization of parallel imports has provoked a surge in counterfeit electronics in Russia, says Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov. He adds that the suppliers of fakes probably understood that they were transporting them, and not the original goods for other regions. Mr. Kuskov believes that it is not worth counting on a decrease in the volume of counterfeit goods, “people who, on principle, buy exclusively original goods are only a part of the buyers, and the price for it is steadily growing.”

The active judicial position of the copyright holder is a natural consequence of the growing popularity of marketplaces, says Alina Akinshina, CEO of Online Patent. She clarifies that if the marketplace, as an information intermediary, takes “necessary and sufficient measures to stop the violation”, then it may be relieved of responsibility for the distribution of non-original goods, “offline stores did not have such concessions.”

The fight against counterfeiting may be important for Sony to maintain the image of the company, says partner, Maxima Legal’s head of IP / IT practice Maxim Ali. However, he does not yet note a general surge in the activity of foreign copyright holders in Russia – “disputes over the protection of intellectual property, as a rule, follow the economic interests of companies, and the toxicity of the Russian market, unfortunately, has not disappeared anywhere.”

Yuri Litvinenko, Nikita Korolev, Ekaterina Volkova