New Balance and Under Armor are suing Russian counterfeit sellers

Since the beginning of the year, the American sneaker manufacturer New Balance has filed more than 300 lawsuits against Russian entrepreneurs in order to protect their own trademarks, writes Shopper's, citing data from the file of arbitration cases. A year earlier, the number of lawsuits from the company was over 370. Another American sneaker and sportswear brand, Under Armor, has filed more than 125 lawsuits this year and more than 175 lawsuits in 2023.

Manufacturers are demanding compensation for violation of exclusive trademark rights. Amounts vary from 10 rubles. up to 000 million rubles

Most often, individuals and individual entrepreneurs become defendants. But there are also lawsuits against large companies. At the end of last year, New Balance filed a lawsuit against the obuv chain of stores, which was partially satisfied. 

The company claims that the shoes of the Russian brands KangYou and “M+D” have markings that are identical or confusingly similar to the New Balance trademarks. These products are sold in obuv stores located in the Moscow Vegas shopping centers "Vesna!" and Solaris. There is a claim for 2,7 million rubles. to the wholesaler of goods from China - Inna LLC. The company imported accessories to Russia for the manufacture of shoes with the brand name N, which belongs to New Balance, it turned out at customs. The court fully satisfied this claim. The claim against the second-hand store “Scooper Hand” (it has stores in Moscow, Rostov and Tula) for 200 rubles was also satisfied.

New Balance closed 2022 stores in Russia in 134, and Trendzone stores opened in some of these areas, which are being developed by the clothing and footwear distributor Jamilco. Under Armor closed stores back in 2019.

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In Russia as a whole, the number of detected cases of counterfeit goods is growing, including on marketplaces, said Kirill Kirillov, commercial director of Brandmonitor (a law firm specializing in the protection of intellectual rights on the Internet). Within a year, Brand Monitor plans to prepare more than 10 claims against entrepreneurs for selling counterfeit products. This is 000 times more than in 1,5.

Civil claims for violation of trademark rights are usually brought for small amounts of 30 rubles. up to 000 rubles, but this affects many entrepreneurs and they stop trading in one or another specific product, Kirillov noted. Courts also recover larger amounts from large sellers - up to 150 million rubles.