Russian Government Suffers Defeat in Use of Trade Name for Flagship International TV Network; Russia Today Television Denied Application by U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

Russian Government Suffers Defeat in Use of Trade Name for Flagship International TV Network; Russia Today Television Denied Application by U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

WASHINGTON, May 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Russian government's attempts at building an International TV News franchise suffered a setback as the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected its bid to gain trademark protection for the use of the name "Russia Today". See: http://www.ipdgroup.com/RT_USPTMO_Rejection.pdf

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cited registration #3196183 which is in use by the U.S.-based RussiaToday.com news service as a key reason.

RussiaToday.com, the legitimate owner of the trademarked name, was founded in 1996 during the run-up to that year's Russian Presidential election by the U.S. online media company IPD Group, Inc. (formerly European Internet Network, Inc.) and is the leading online news service covering Russia and the CIS.

The IPD Group has sent letters to Comcast, Intelsat and MHz networks, all of which carry the Russian government's Russia Today channel, demanding that they immediately stop violating the IPD Group's Russia Today trademark.

According to the Russia Today TV website (http://www.rttv.ru/), "The channel has correspondents' bureaus in London, Paris, Jerusalem, Washington and Cairo, and is developing plans to extend the network to other regions of the world. Operating funds come from the government, and commercial bank loans, a sum of $US30 million in 2005."

The Russian government has registered for protection with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO http://www.wipo.int/). However, according to WIPO whether or not a mark secures protection for any given designated Contracting Party will depend upon the law and practice of such territory and is not a matter with which the International Bureau is directly involved.

A spokesman for the U.S.-based IPD Group said that it believes that the Russian government's application(s) with member states in the Madrid Union will also likely fail because RussiaToday.com is a world-wide recognized brand in use for over 10 years.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.russiatoday.ru/http://www.russiatoday.com/http://www.ipdgroup.com/

Source: IPD Group, Inc.

CONTACT: David Rothstein of IPD Group, +1-202-318-8905 or
http://www.ipdgroup.com/feedback.php

Web site:

http://www.ipdgroup.com/
http://www.russiatoday.ru/
http://www.russiatoday.com/
http://www.rttv.ru/
http://www.ipdgroup.com/RT_USPTMO_Rejection.pdf

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