At the beginning of March, the famous fast-food chain decided to withdraw from Russia, resulting in the closure of 850 restaurants in the country. This caused a significant stir in the global media, but most importantly, among the citizens of the Russian Federation. However, as it turned out, one of the companies (Ruspole) decided to seize the opportunity and create its own version of McDonald’s.
Four days after McDonald’s withdrew, an application was filed with the Russian equivalent of the Patent Office to register the word and graphic trademark “Uncle Vanya,” which is a very faithful copy of the famous golden arches (the application concerns catering establishments). The letter “M” has n rotated 90 degrees, thus forming the letter “W” according to the Cyrillic alphabet (our letter “B”), and it also has almost the same font as the one McDonald’s uses in its logo. All of this has n placed on a red background again and very closely resembles the inverted golden arches, which undoubtedly evokes the famous fast-food chain. However, according to the latest news, an internal investigation is underway at Ruspole, the company that owns the “Uncle Vanya” brand, regarding the application to register a trademark similar to McDonald’s, and a number of lawyers and patent attorneys are working to invalidate this mark. The Russian company claims that the logo was intended to be treated as a meme, but it also confirms that the application was indeed filed.
The aforementioned circumstances indicate that there is a real risk that Russia is planning to replace well-known global brands with its own domestic alternatives. Furthermore, if the protection of trademarks on Russian territory for foreign entities is lifted, it will likely result in all well-known brands having identical counterparts in the country, and the actual owners will be deprived of the protection of their rights, which will expose them to enormous losses.
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