MOSCOW, November 8 (RAPSI) – Russian businessman Alexey Zaytsev has appealed against court rulings prohibiting him to use domain name saucony.ru and awarding to a US company Saucony, Inc. a compensation in the amount of 300,000 rubles ($4,700), the records of the Russian Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) read on Tuesday.

The entrepreneur has appealed against a ruling by the Kaliningrad Regional Commercial Court of 16 May and that by the Thirteenth Court of Appeals of August 30.

Per the US company’s petition, it owned “Saucony” trademark, properly registered and put on the Russia’s State Trademark Register. Alexey Zaytsev administered domain name saucony.ru, which was registered on 21 December 2003.

Since the date of registration, the domain has not been available. The claimant has insisted that the use of “saucony” in the domain name infringed upon its exclusive rights as the trademark owner.

The courts ruled that Zaytsev had no sound legal right and legitimate interest regarding this domain name, since he was not owner of “saucony” trademark and the said domain did not reflect his name or the name of his company.

Besides, the defendant failed to present evidence of any other legitimate interest in the use of the disputed trademark. Therefore, according to the judgement, Zaytsev’s actions were defined as an act of unfair competition.