
Trademark Registration in TROIS
TROIS is the Customs Registry of Intellectual Property Rights.
As of 2020, pursuant to the decision of the Supreme Court, trademarks are entered in TROIS upon application from the applicant, rather than upon discovering an infringement of intellectual property rights during the import of counterfeit goods, as has been the case since the creation of this register in 2004.
TROIS is an independent database of the FCS (Federal Customs Service) and is not connected with the Rospatent (Federal Service for Intellectual Property) database.
In order to have a trademark included in the TROIS, one should apply directly to the FCS of Russia.
The application can be filed by both the manufacturer and the importer.
TROIS works as an information system, which customs officials use to check goods coming from abroad. If the goods do not pass the inspection, the FCS blocks them for ten days at the customs and informs the rights holder.
If counterfeit goods are imported, the customs authorities will not allow the shipment through and will initiate administrative proceedings under article 14.10 of the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offences. An investigation will be conducted and the goods will be seized. Also, the rights holder will be informed about the fact of importing counterfeit goods and will participate in the Arbitration Court as a third party. The plaintiff in this case will be the Customs Service.
The period of inclusion in the TROIS is no more than two years (but no more than the period of protection of the trademark based on the fact of registration in Rospatent). This term can be extended an unlimited number of times.
What is necessary for the inclusion of a trademark in TROIS in accordance with an Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of the Federal Customs Service dated January 28, 2019 N 131
“On the Approval of the Administrative Regulations of the Federal Customs Service on the Provision of the State Service for Maintaining the Customs Register of Intellectual Property Rights”:
1. Application for the provision of a state service on behalf of the rights holder
Explanation:
The Applicant is a rights holder who has reasonable grounds to believe that their IP rights may have been infringed in connection with the import of goods into the Russian Federation or export of goods from the Russian Federation, or when performing other actions with goods under customs control (hereinafter referred to as the Applicant).
Rights holders are Russian and foreign individuals and legal entities, including individual entrepreneurs with exclusive copyright and related rights, trademarks (service marks) or appellations of origin.
An application for the provision of a state service on behalf of the rights holder, who is a foreign person and has no representation on the territory of the Russian Federation before the customs authorities, is submitted through Russian legal entities or individuals having Russian citizenship and residing in the Russian Federation, including those registered in the Russian Federation as individual entrepreneurs, authorized in accordance with the documents of title to interact with the FCS of Russia on issues related to the maintenance of the customs register of intellectual property (hereinafter referred to as the Representative).
2. A copy of the passport proving the identity of the Applicant, for individuals, or the Articles of Association and constituent documents for legal entities;
3. Extract from the Commercial Register, Certificate of Incorporation or other document with information on the authority that registered the foreign legal entity (this is required only if the Applicant is a foreign legal entity);
4. Obligation of the rights holder to compensate for property losses which may be incurred by bona fide market participants after the suspension of their products with an insured sum of not less than RUB 500,000;
5. Certificate for a trademark;
6. Certificate of the IP on the basis of Rospatent information;
7. Concession and license agreements, agreements on the alienation or cession of the exclusive right to the trademark – if any;
8. Documents on the legal protection of the trademark in the Russian Federation under the international treaties of the Russian Federation;
9. Description of the original product;
10. Samples of counterfeit goods (optional).
11. Information on the goods, the import of which into the Russian Federation or the export of which from the Russian Federation, or committing other actions which during their stay under the customs control entails the infringement of IP rights, is sufficiently detailed for the customs authorities to identify such goods:
12. Information on persons engaged in the circulation of original goods and goods with signs of infringement of the rights of the rights holder (name of the legal entity and (or) surname, name, patronymic (if any) of an individual, addresses, TIN (if any), specifying their role (importer, carrier, consignee, manufacturer, exporter);
13. Information on the routes of movement (transit), modes of transport, places of transshipment, storage, places of crossing the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union, places of customs operations and customs control;
14. Information on the distinctive features and characteristics of the goods (for each type of goods)
And other documents described in Order N 131 dated January 28, 2019.
The order also describes the application forms.
Method of filing the application:
At the present moment, it is possible to submit it through the personal account of a FEA (Foreign Economic Activity) participant or on paper.
1. Register in the “Personal Account of a FEA Participant” on the official website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.
Regulatory documents:
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Administrative Regulations (approved by Order of the Federal Customs Service of Russia dated 28.01.2019 N 131)
The application shall be submitted by filling out the form:
a)Logging in to a FEA participant’s personal account using EDS.
b)Choice of the necessary service: All Services ─> Specialized Personal Accounts ─> Personal Account of the Rights Holder ─> Inclusion in TROIS ─> Application for Inclusion in the Register
c)Filling in the form.
The information about the company is filled in automatically.
d)Submission of the form.
2. Filing of documents in hard copy
The application shall be submitted to the FCS of Russia by mail or directly to the FCS of Russia (correspondence box at the Reception of the FCS of Russia) at: 121087, Moscow, 11/5 Novozavodskaya Street
Note:
Since after the trademark registration there will be a specific list of companies that may import products with this trademark, our company BV Company LLC must also be included in the list of companies that have the right to import goods with a registered trademark in the Russian Federation. Otherwise we will not be able to import samples for registration in the future.