Current trademark laws are shortsighted and new laws are needed to protect intellectual property rights, a top government official said Monday.

Alexander Korchagin, the head of Rospatent, the Federal Parents and Trademarks Agency, told a roundtable discussion that when current trademark laws were ratified in 1992 "nobody knew anything.  …No one remembered to ask any questions."

Korchagin was attempting to assuage growing fears among many producers f both foreign and domestic f that the government is intending to nationalize brand names that were widely used simultaneously by many different factories in the Soviet Union. Under the Communist system, all trademarks were the property of the state and many producers had the right to use them. Therefore, few of the factories really cared who owned the brand name. But when the factories were privatized, companies began to fight over who owned the exclusive rights to certain trademarks.

"Trademarks will not be nationalized," Korchagin told the roundtable, which was organized by the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights and brought together patents and trademarks associations, producers and federal ministries.

Instead, Korchagin said, producers who registered old Soviet trademarks after January 1992 and who are now locked in legal disputes with other producers using the same brand names can opt for a new "compliance mark."

The compliance mark, a sort of compromise regulation apparently unique to Russia, certifies that a product is made to certain standards, which are controlled jointly by the state and the company that originally registered the trademark. The proposal is aimed at resolving a string of ongoing disputes among producers for the right to Soviet-era trademarks.

Rospatent lists some 200 trademarks that are currently being disputed. These include such well-known names as Stolichnaya vodka, Zhigulyovskoye beer, Prima cigarettes and Yubileynoye cookies.

After privatization, companies that were quick to register their trademarks with Rospatent tried to get the other companies making the same product to pay license fees, which was debated in court in a series of cases.

The popular brand name beer Zhigulyovskoye, for example, was produced by 411 different breweries during Soviet times. A company in Samara was the first to register the trademark after the 1992 laws came into effect, and promptly sent out warnings to the other breweries to either stop production or pay up.

The breweries battled in court against Rospatent's decision to award the Samara company exclusive rights to the Zhigulyovskoye name.

But it took nearly eight years for Rospatent's appeal chamber to eventually annul the Samara brewer's monopoly, which it did earlier this year.

The new amendment, Korchagin said, should help avoid such disputes in the future. Industry watchers and trademark owners, however, are doubtful the new amendment will have the desired effect and think it will be best to regard each dispute individually.

Alexander Shelemekh, vice president of the CIPR, said that annulling trademarks could damage foreign investors.

"Foreign investors brought money into the companies knowing that they have trademarks as assets. If they are annulled, it could lead to a scandal because their rights will be violated," he said.

© copyright The Moscow Times 1997-1999