Apple won in court with Russian online stores

Apple achieved the first victory in a dispute with Russian online retailers using the Apple, iPhone and iPad trademark without permission from the copyright holder. The American corporation has entered into a settlement agreement with the site administrator apl-msk.ru and will now receive the rights to a number of domains from which customers were redirected to this online store.

The Moscow Arbitration Court yesterday approved the settlement agreement between Apple Inc. and Ivan Nemkin, domain administrator apl-msk.ru, apples-msk.ru, apple-msk.ru, apple.msk.ru, applemsk.ru, apples.msk.ru, applesmsk.ru. Redirection from these domains goes to the online store apl-msk.ru, which implements the technology under the Apple brand.

The American corporation accused Ivan Nemkin of violating the rights to the “apple” trademark in domains and demanded to recover 1 million rubles from him. According to the text of the settlement agreement, released during the court hearing by a lawyer representing the interests of Apple, Ivan Nemkin pleaded guilty to violating Apple's trademark rights and agreed to voluntarily transfer the rights to all listed domains to an American corporation, and Apple refused to collect compensation.