A claim for invalidating a trademark certificate is not subject to commercial procedure rules if the certificate holder is an individual - SC CommCC

A claim for invalidation of a trademark certificate owned by an individual is not subject to consideration under the rules of commercial proceedings. The proper respondent to such a claim should be the owner of the certificate as an individual, not an individual entrepreneur. Such disputes are subject to resolution in general courts.

This conclusion was reached by a panel of judges of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court.

An individual entrepreneur filed a lawsuit against another individual entrepreneur. The plaintiff asked the court to invalidate the certificate in its entirety and to oblige the State Organisation "Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations" to enter the information into the State Register of Trademark Certificates owned by the individual.

The court of first instance, whose conclusions were upheld by the Commercial Court of Appeal, dismissed the claim.  

The Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court cancelled the court decisions in this part and closed the proceedings on the basis of paragraph 1 of part 1 of Article 235 of the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine, noting that the courts of previous instances had ignored the fact that the plaintiff's claim for invalidation of the certificate is not subject to consideration under the rules of commercial proceedings, since the owner of the certificate that is invalidated (under the circumstances established by the previous courts) is not the defendant, but an individual.

The claim in question concerns the deprivation of an individual’s ownership rights to a trademark by invalidating the certificate; the proper respondent to such a claim must be the certificate holder as a natural person, not as a sole proprietor.

The Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court concluded that there were no legal grounds for considering this claim under the rules of commercial proceedings. This claim is subject to resolution in a general court (given the need to consider the case with the participation of an individual - the owner of the disputed certificate).

Resolution of the Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court of 17 June 2025 in case No. 910/4461/23 - https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/128275685.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.