In an attempt to patent the term ‘Bitcoin’ in Russia, a Moscow-based firm called M-Group filed an application at the Russian patent office. The application was duly rejected.
Rospatent, the Russian patent agency has recently confirmed the rejection of an application by a Moscow-based firm which filed a patent request to trademark ‘Bitcoin.’
According to local publication Rapsinews , the firm, known as “M-Group” requested the patent agency to trademark the term bitcoin in relation to the 36 th and the 38 th International Classification of Goods and Services for Finance and Telecommunications, respectively.
For its part, Rospatent duly denied the patent request for a trademark, firstly explaining that declared designation for the patent – ‘bitcoin’, unsurprisingly draws a parallel to an electronic payment system powered by a virtual currency of the same name.
Notably, the patent authority also recognized that the Bitcoin platform was developed in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto and Gavin Anderson, explaining the same to the filing firm M-Group. Additionally, Rospatent also added that the cryptocurrency ‘Bitcoin’ was already in circulation long before M-Group filed an application for trademarking the term ‘bitcoin.’ Bitcoin – A Common Term in Finance and Economy
In adding to its list of reasons why the request for a trademark of ‘Bitcoin’ was rejected, Rospatent also deemed the word ‘Bitcoin’ as a common term used in the fields of finance and economy.
Moreover, bitcoin is applicable to services related to Telecommunication systems – the 38 th International Classification of Goods and Services.
With these factors in mind, the company’s request for a trademark could not be legally protected for the requested service classes (36 th and 38 th ). Additionally, the patent authority also opined that such a trademark would inevitably confuse consumers who are dealing with services surrounding the cryptocurrency, in accordance to paragraph 3 […]
