MOSCOW, July 8 (RAPSI, Natalia Belova) – The Russian Intellectual Property Court (IPC) has set hearings with regard to a complaint US The Procter & Gamble had lodged against a court ruling dismissing its claim against Russian NEFIS Cosmetics, in which the American firm asked to ban sales of detergents under SORTI brand and sought a five million rubles ($77,500) compensation for August 4, the court records read on Friday.

In the same lawsuit, NEFIS Cosmetics (a part of NEFIS group of companies, the largest Russian manufacturer of household chemicals and fat-and-oil products) has filed a counterclaim seeking to rule the plaintiff’s actions related to trademark registration as an act of unfair competition.

On August 28, 2015, the Republican Court of Appeals in the Republic of Tatarstan dismissed the original claim, as well as the counterclaim upholding the first instance judgement.

The Procter & Gamble, the holder of FAIRY and FAIRY Platinum trademarks, seeks to ban sales of products under SORTI brand alleging that the design of packages and designation of these products render them confusingly similar to the packages of FAIRY products, what infringes on the US company exclusive rights for FAIRY design.

The court ruled that the products were not confusingly similar, as the NEFIS products design was dominated by “SORTI” element, what excluded any possibility consumers could confuse them. According to the court, the plaintiff had also failed to produce evidence of serious negative consequences for its further economic activities.

An opinion survey has shown that the majority of respondents pointed out that packages were different with regard to their layout and other indications.

As concerned the counterclaim, the court pointed out that NEFIS Cosmetics also failed to provide sufficient evidence that the plaintiff’s actions for acquiring exclusive rights for the disputed trademarks were unfair and carried out solely to harm the defendant as a performer of activities similar to those of the plaintiff.