World Trademark Review posted a decision on a case that took over a year to get resolved. Masterhold.ru was the domain name in question.
In 2018 LLC Masterhold lodged a complaint alleging that Kornev’s use of its domain name ‘masterhold.ru’ and MASTERHOLD and МАСТЕРХОЛД was illegal as these were confusingly similar to LLC Masterhold’s means of individualisation.
On 15 October 2018, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the claims lodged by Masterhold’s representatives and prohibited the defendant from using the disputed domain name and the means of individualisation – it found that these were confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s trademarks and ordered it to transfer the domain ‘masterhold.ru’ to Masterhold.
Considering the actions of the first-instance court to be illegal, Kornev filed an appeal. In December 2018, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal – having studied the case materials and listened to the positions of the parties – reversed the first-instance decision and dismissed Masterhold’s claims.
After that Masterhold went back to court and appealed and they won, then Kornev went back to court and appealed that decision.
Eventually Kornev’s appeal was denied and the case is now finally resolved.