In Russia, there was a dispute over the LADA.RF domain.

Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ has acquired the rights to the lada.rf domain.

Until recently, this domain was assigned to the Petersburg Mill Plant, a company engaged in flour milling.

On April 15 of this year, the "Lada" trademark, owned by the Petersburg Mill Company, was set to expire. However, in late March, Rospatent decided to terminate the trademark protection early in favor of the automobile company. This was due to the fact that, despite the milling company owning the "Lada" trademark, it never released any products under the brand. And the website lada.rf was never operational.

The "Lada" trademark for flour and cereals was registered back in 2002. The Petersburg Mill Plant planned to produce flour and cereal products under this trademark. Because the company owned the trademark, it was able to obtain the domain lada.rf during the priority registration process.

AvtoVAZ will now be able to challenge the registration of the lada.rf domain in court.