The publication RIA Novosti is suing for the domain

Late last week, a Moscow court remanded the case involving the rianovosti.ru domain for retrial.

The RIA Novosti news agency attempted to gain control of the domain back in 2010. In justifying its claim, the news agency emphasized that RIA Novosti is the copyright holder of the English-language brand name "Russian Information News Agency" (RIA Novosti) and the abbreviated name "RIA Novosti." Furthermore, the plaintiff holds exclusive rights to the trademark "RIANOVOSTI."

The current owners of the rianovosti.ru domain are Georgy Tretyakov and the individual entrepreneur "Yanus Poluektovich Nevstruev." They claimed that RIA Novosti lacked documents confirming the inclusion of the RIA Novosti name in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRLE). The court upheld their arguments, but RIA Novosti filed a complaint with a higher court.

The panel of judges hearing the case ruled that an individual's lack of right to a company name does not mean that the individual cannot infringe on a legal entity's rights to such a name. Therefore, the case was remanded to the trial court for a new trial.