Wildberries co-owner Vladislav Bakalchuk has applied to Rospatent for the registration of RWB trademark, which coincides with the brand name of RWB – the merged company of Wildberries (65%) and Russ Group structures (35%), created in July 2024. The trademark registration covers image files, commercial construction, web services and other goods and services.

Bakalchuk’s strategy is clear: they want to “occupy” the designation to counterpose it to the designation that the merged company may try to register and thus prevent its registration.

But the purpose of trademarks is, first of all, to serve as a means of individualization of goods, works and services rather than a weapon to fight in corporate and family conflicts. In any dispute over this trademark, RWB will be able to claim that its registration by Bakalchuk was an “abuse of right” to prevent the merged company from using the designation. Pursuant to Article 1512 of the Russian Civil Code, the trademark registration may be invalidated by virtue of such abuse.

The full article is available on Vedomosti.ru.

Earlier Elena commented on Vladislav Bakalchuk’s challenge of the transfer of Wildberries domains to RVB LLC and on disputes over Wildberries social media channels.