Rospatent (Rospatent) has decided to deny registration of the "Moscow City" trademark for services provided in the real estate and construction industries. The patent office justified this decision by citing that such a designation lacks distinctiveness. Representatives of the state organization explained that the proposed designation designates a geographic location and is strongly associated in consumers' perceptions with the location of service provision.
An attempt to challenge Rospatent's decision resulted in the Intellectual Property Court's ruling on October 29, 2021, upholding the earlier first-instance court's decision invalidating the state agency's decision. However, the court's presidium ordered Rospatent to reconsider the matter. This is because, according to the rules of the English language, "Moscow City" is translated as "Moscow City," not "the city of Moscow."
Thus, in English, a city's name is designated as a name or verbal construction, formed with the obligatory article "the." For example, the correct English translation of the name of St. Petersburg would be Saint-Petersburg or the city of Saint-Petersburg. At the same time, English grammar requires adding "city" after the city's name when there are two territorial units with the same name, such as New York City. Since there are no other administrative units named "Moscow" in Russia besides the capital itself, this means that "Moscow City" is not translated as "the city of Moscow," but rather refers to the international business center.
We previously wrote about: The legal dispute between City Management Company and Rospatent
