100-fold increase in trademark fees proposed for foreign companies
The state fees for registering trademarks for companies from unfriendly countries may be temporarily increased 100-fold under a proposal made by Federation Council Economic Policy Committee Chairman Andrey Kutepov to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports.
"To protect the interests of Russian manufacturers, we request that temporary additional measures be introduced regarding applications for trademark registration by foreign companies and individuals associated with foreign states that act in an unfriendly manner towards the Russian Federation, Russian legal entities and individuals," Kutepov's letter states.
According to Russian patent agency Rospatent, trademark applications from foreign entities in 2024 accounted for 13% of the total. The senator believes that increased fees for "unfriendly" foreigners should apply to:
The charges in 2026 are a RUB 17,000 application and examination fee (RUB 4,000 for considering the application and RUB 13,000 for the examination), and RUB 18,000 for registering the mark and issuing a digital certificate. Thus, the total cost of trademark registration is at least RUB 35,000, but this applies only to one trademark in one class of the International Classification of Goods and Services.
If additional classes of goods/services are required, there will be an additional fee of RUB 3,500 for each class up to and including five, or RUB 5,000 for each class above five. Since October 2025, the number of goods and services declared in a class has also been taken into account (this applies to fees for substantive examination and for the renewal of exclusive rights). Now, each good or service in excess of ten costs an additional RUB 500 for filing an application and for renewing a trademark.
Despite the departure of many Western manufacturers from Russia, they are actively registering and re-registering their trademarks in the country. Foreign companies do this mainly to protect their trademark rights. Recently, Rospatent has received applications from companies such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Toyota, BMW, Apple, and McDonalds.
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31.01.26