Discriminatory EU Policy toward Russian applicants: refusal by French Intellectual Property Office with reference to discriminatory restrictions

Once again, Russian applicants are facing discriminatory restrictions on their rights to intellectual property protection within the European Union.

The French Intellectual Property Office (INPI) has refused to grant protection to a trademark under an international registration, citing EU sanctions measures targeting Russian individuals and companies.

The refusal was issued with reference to Regulation (EU) 2024/1745, which entered into force on 24 June 2024. The grounds for refusal were the presence of an address in the Russian Federation for the applicant’s representative. This indicates that even a formal or indirect connection to Russia may now serve as sufficient grounds for denial of protection within the EU.

This case represents yet another recorded precedent of applying restrictive sanction-based measures to international trademark registrations. According to the Office’s position, “applications filed by persons connected with Russia (including representatives) shall not be accepted unless they fall within the established exceptions (such as citizenship of an EU/EEA Member State or Switzerland, or residence permits in those jurisdictions)”

The applicant has been granted one month to provide evidence supporting the applicability of such exceptions. Failing this, trademark protection in France will be definitively refused. In practical terms, this places an additional administrative and legal burden on applicants, requiring them to justify their eligibility based on criteria unrelated to the merits of the trademark itself.

In essence, these measures target not the intellectual property object, but the identity of the applicant or their representative. This creates a troubling precedent whereby access to legal protection is conditioned upon nationality, residence, or geographic affiliation, rather than compliance with substantive trademark requirements.

Such practice raises serious concerns regarding compliance with international legal obligations and the fundamental principles of the global intellectual property system. In particular, it appears to be inconsistent with:

• Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which establishes the principle of national treatment and prohibits discrimination based on the country of origin of applicants,

• Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks, which is designed to ensure a unified and accessible system for obtaining trademark protection across multiple jurisdictions,

• Madrid Protocol, which further facilitates international trademark registration and guarantees equal procedural treatment for applicants from all contracting parties.
  

These international instruments collectively provide for equal and non-discriminatory access to trademark protection for applicants from all member states, including Russia. The introduction of restrictions based on political or geographic criteria undermines the predictability, neutrality, and integrity of the international registration system.

Moreover, such measures may have broader implications for international business and innovation. By limiting access to trademark protection based on factors unrelated to the legal characteristics of the mark, regulatory authorities risk discouraging cross-border commercial activity and weakening confidence in established legal frameworks.

The fact that restrictions are applied not to the intellectual property itself, but to the identity of the applicant or their representative, reinforces a systemic shift toward selective access to legal protection. This, in turn, challenges the foundational principles upon which international intellectual property cooperation has been built for decades.

We observe with deep concern the gradual erosion of the global intellectual property protection system.