Russian Patents Blog

Today I was responding to an inquiry from Israel re process and cost of trademark registration in Russia, and upon finishing my letter I thought that this matter might be of interest to somebody else, so I’m posting it here.

Daniel wrote:

I anticipate the client will want to know a bottom-line price,
so I would be much obliged if you could run me through, A to Z, on the costs of one
trademark registration in Russia (assuming of course it is not contested). (In
actuality, the client is seeking to register a number of trademarks).

Here is a (updated) quick guide to trademark registration in Russia.

Prior to filing trademark application in the territory of Russian Federation,
it is necessary to conduct search on identity and similarity in the official database of registered trademarks and filed applications.

This search includes a search of Russia’s Trademark Office records – both in Latin and Cyrillic symbols – of all registered, expired, canceled or abandoned word marks similar in sight, sound or meaning, INCLUDING trademark applications.

Cost of preliminary search is:
Preliminary Search within 7 days (including registered marks and filed applications)
– word/combined mark in 1 class: $150 ($40 per each additional class)

For example, if a company wants to register 3 trademarks in 2 classes each
(according to The Nice Classification of goods and services),
the search will cost
($150+$40) x 3 = $570

If the search proves that there is no obstacle to registration of your trademark, we enter 2nd phase – application filing.

Involved costs for this stage (including official fees):
$560 – Registration of one trademark in 1 ICGS class
$82 – for each additional ICGS class

For each additional mark applied for at the same time, we charge $50 less for registration:
$510 – Registration of one trademark in 1 ICGS class
$82 – each additional class in second or subsequent application

For example, if a company wants to register 3 trademarks in 2 classes each,
the filing will cost
($560 + $82) that’s for the 1st mark in 2 classes
+
($510 + $82)x2 that’s for 2nd mark in 2 classes
= $1826

To summarize: at the initial stage, a company shall transfer to us funds
1) to cover the search fees
and
2) to cover the filing fees.
In this example, to register 3 trademarks in 2 classes each, a company shall transfer
$570 (the search fees) + $1826 (the filing fees) = $2396

Futher on, upon submitting the application, within a month we’ll get the priority notice.
Substantive examination process at Russian PTO takes about 12 months.
Upon receiving notification of positive decision, a company shall pay trademark registration and issuance of certificate fees
$560 (incl. official fee and attorney fee).
In case of 3 trademarks, it’ll be $560 x 3 = $1680 (no discount here due to low attorney fee).

We will need from you following:
# Designation to be protected and Trademark type (word, logo, combined)
# A complete list of goods or services on which the trademark will be used (preferably grouped according to the Nice Classification)
# Information about applicant: official name, legal address, country (indicating a state)
# a Power of Attorney (we will provide the form)

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further assistance.

—
[Source: Russian Patents blog]

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We’ve just updated our “Russian trademark search services” page, and that reminded me of a case we came across recently with one of our Chinese clients (an Intellectual Property Agent based in Beijing).

They wrote:

“During the period of cooperation with another Russian ip firm, we have to conduct trademark search through a Hong Kong firm because Russian charges too much (they just wasn’t acquinted with Patents from RU back when…).
We pay RMB1000 (almost USD140) for one search either for a word mark or combined mark. If you could help conduct search (I suppose the search data should include the registered trademarks and pending applications), we don’t have to turn to the Hong Kong firm. That’ll be very convenient for us.

We just entrusted the Hong Kong firm to conduct two trademarks in Russia 7 days ago and we have given the search result to the client. We suppose they may confirm to file the applications in a few days.”

We asked this Chinese client of ours to send over the search report they got from that Hong Kong firm (you can see it here). They did, and I noticed two important things:

1) the search report does not contain trademark applications results
2) the search report does not list Cyrillic matches

So, in a word, the search report provided by a Hong Kong firm is in no way a complete report – it ignored transliterations into Cyrillic and it ignored Russian trademark applications.

Please beware of such Russian trademark search services originating from outside Russia – you’d better turn to assistance of firms based in Russia.

For you reference, here is two sample trademark search reports – one from RUPTO and another from Patents from RU.

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Do you have a PCT patent application which is due to enter national phase in Russia? We, as registered patent attorneys based in Russia, can act as your agent.
» PCT national phase filing in Russia

Last week we simultaneously (the same day) received similar inquires from two separate people – one came from the US and another from Spain. These inquires brought my attention to the fact that we forgot to mention this kind of service at our site (Update: fixed), but meanwhile I decided to put up a short post on this matter.

So, the inquiries were like these:

I wish to enter my PCT patent with your firm on Russia. I have 2 PCT patents. You can give
information (prices at reasonable cost and others) about your office ,so I can enter my PCT
into Russia with your Firm.

and 2nd one:

I need to do a PCT national stage filing in your country by July 27, 2008 (the 31 month priority date), for application PCT/US2006/062***. If this is something you can do for me, please quote me the cost of having you do the PCT national stage filing for me in Russia, including translation of the
application (about 9334 words in English).

I believe my response might be of interest to other inventors from around the world.

The costs for entering the national phase of a PCT-application before
the Russian Patent Office will be the following:

1) basic fee for taking over representation and entering the national
phase:

official fees USD 200
attorney fees USD 850

2) filing the examination request

official fees USD 300
attorney fees USD 100

Attorney fees include all necessary actions during Patent Office
prosecution until getting the Resolution of Patent Office (~12-13
months).

Additional fees may become due, if the application includes the group
of inventions or more than 25 claims. In this case, however, we will contact you readily to check, whether the number of claims can be reduced, for example by deleting subclaims. The above
costs do not reflect any disbursements.

The Application will be filed during a week.

The number of Application and the date of filing will be known after ~45 days
– we will send to you the e-copy of Notice of Arrival.

As for translation – cost of translation is $15/100 words (most of Russian patent attorneys
would charge $20/100 words – but do not bother to provide a portfolio of RUS<>ENG patent translations, which we do maintain), so for 9334 words in English it’d be $1395 (you’d save $465 with us).

The following documents are necessary to do a PCT national stage filing in Russia:
– Applicant name
– Inventors names
– Claims
– Description
– Figures
– Copy of the priority Application (first US Application)
– Power of Attorney (signed by the Applicant)

As for turnaround:

– Translation of the PCT application (from English to Russian, about 9334 words in English): 1 week
– Express mail delivery of signed Power of Attorney from you to us: 4-5 days
– Transfer of funds from you to us (bank wire): 4 days
– Transfer of funds from us to RUPTO (bank wire): another 4 days
– Postal delivery of the application to RUPTO: 4 days (as an option, express mail will take 1 day).

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