Ministry of Economic Development declines to hike trademark fees for unfriendly countries
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development did not support the proposal by Andrey Kutepov, chairman of the Federation Council's economic policy committee, to temporarily increase the government duty for registering trademarks for companies from unfriendly countries, RIA Novosti reports.
A response to the senator signed by First Deputy Minister Maxim Kolesnikov states that "due to the Russian Federation's participation in a number of international intellectual property treaties that establish a national treatment standard, foreign rights holders are granted the same legal protection in the Russian Federation as Russian rights holders."
The passage of laws contravening international treaties to which Russia is a signatory may risk the Russian Federation being accused of violating its international obligations and serve as a justification for retaliatory measures, the ministry said.
Earlier, Kutepov had proposed a temporary 100-fold increase in the official trademark registration fee for companies from unfriendly countries "due to the need to protect Russian manufacturers' interests".
In 2026, the fee for filing an application and for trademark examination is RUB 17,000 (RUB 4,000 for reviewing the application and RUB 13,000 for conducting the examination), plus another RUB 18,000 for registering the trademark and issuing an electronic certificate. So the total payable for trademark registration is at least RUB 35,000, although this is only for one trademark in one class of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICGS).
If additional classes of goods/services are required there is an additional fee of RUB 3,500 for each class up to 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 renewing the term of exclusive rights). Now, each good or service in excess of ten costs an additional RUB 500 for filing the application and for renewing the trademark.
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06.03.26