PLAYSTATION CALLS FOR FAIR PLAY

In 2023 Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc, the owner of PLAYSTATION trademarks, initiated multiple court cases against counterfeiters in the Russian Federation. The court recognized several cases of infringement of IP rights and awarded monetary compensation for sales of fake PLAYSTATION game consoles on popular marketplaces. Despite the currently limited presence in the market, many companies such as SONY continue to carefully monitor and combat illegal trademark use.

The Commercial Court Registry shows 27 cases initiated by Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. in 2023 against various individuals in different regions of the country including 12 last August. That is a remarkable increase comparing to one case filed by Sony during the entire year of 2022. Some of the cases have already been decided in favor of Sony Interactive Entertainment satisfying the claims in full or partially. Some cases are based on trademark infringement while the decisions refer to illegal sale of PLAYSTATION gamepads on the widely used online platform Wildberries. Rapidly raising popularity of online retail platforms brings more counterfeit opportunities, so the marketplaces take actions to prevent and fight infringement. Wildberries, for example, introduced their own tool called digital arbitration.

Regarding Sony’s increase in court activity in comparison to the years preceding 2022, the reason could be legalization of parallel import which allowed third parties to import the goods labelled by brands that had left the Russian market. Although parallel import allows only genuine goods, once the borders have been opened for third party importers, the higher percentage of fake products calls for increased attention from the right holders.

Among other companies actively combatting IP rights infringement is Robert Bosch GmbH that has already filed 163 cases in 2023 and Harman International Industries Incorporated – the Samsung-owned company, holder of JBL trademarks – which is a Plaintiff in more than 430 court cases in Russia this year.

These numbers show that despite the unstable environment and suspension of activity many manufacturers and trademark holders find it important to keep the counterfeit level as low as possible and continue to carefully sustain their reputation for consumers.