Brand idea

The Rodina brand becomes political

As the Rodina party prepares for its congress, scheduled for March 25, its leader Dmitry Rogozin may have one more thing on his mind. A long-standing problem related to brand ownership has come to light. Back in 2003, the Socialist United Party registered the trademark “Motherland” for itself. At the elections to the State Duma, SEPR, along with Sergei Baburin’s “People’s Will” and several other small organizations, was part of that electoral bloc under the general name “Motherland”. Over time, relations between the participants in the bloc deteriorated; Sergei Baburin left the Rogozin faction “Rodina”, forming his own - “Rodina” (“Narodnaya Volya” - SEPR). The only representative of SEPR in the Duma, who is also the leader of this party, who is also Vladimir Putin’s judo coach, Vasily Shestakov, also entered there.

At the same time, there is a public organization, the People's Patriotic Association "Rodina", headed by Ales Tikhonov, which is one of the main partners of Rogozin's "Motherland". Recently, NPO Rodina applied to Rospatent to challenge the ownership of the trademark by SEPR. Perhaps Mr. Rogozin wanted to make a gift to the party members by showing off the trademark he had won from his former comrades at the congress. However, Rospatent ruled in favor of SEPR.

It is worth remembering that SEPR has been periodically scaring Rogozinites for a long time. For example, in the summer of 2005, this party, as the owner of the trademark, addressed all political parties and other public associations with a proposal to refuse to use the word “Motherland” in their names at least until the end of the 2007-2008 election campaign. They motivated this by the need to protect the word dear to every Russian from abuse - especially in conditions when former members of the Rodina bloc are constantly quarreling. Seprovites also often said that Dmitry Rogozin usurped this “name dear to every Russian” when he headed one of the bloc’s members - the Party of Russian Regions, after which it was renamed “Motherland”.

“We registered the Rodina trademark in 2003 for ten years,” Andrei Gerasimov, chairman of the central executive committee of SEPR, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. - Both Sergei Glazyev and Dmitry Rogozin knew about this. By the way, when they organized their union, they called it “Comrade”. And only with the arrival of our organization it was decided that the bloc would be called “Motherland”. I even had to reprint booklets and posters at night. The agreement was very simple: we go to the State Duma, create a working group and begin to move forward on socialist ideology, on working with social projects. Unfortunately, after the elections to the State Duma, Glazyev and Rogozin stirred up a scandal over who owned the Rodina brand, and this ended with the renaming of the Party of Russian Regions in February 2004. Rogozin didn’t even ask for the opinion of the block’s participants, in particular those who have the rights to the name.”

The Rogozinites assure that they are not threatened by SEPR taking away their brand, since trademarks and political parties are regulated by different laws. In addition, the names coincide only partially. “SEPR’s trademark name sounds like “People’s Patriotic Association “Rodina”,” and we are registered with the Ministry of Justice as a political party. And they are trying to make some kind of fuss out of this,” Sergei Chaplinsky, a member of the Rodina faction in the State Duma, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - In general, “homeland” is a commonly used word; it cannot be patented. But trademarks can be registered with this word when it is part of any phrase.”

At the same time, the Seprovites are confident that they can cut off oxygen to the Rogozinites. “We have the right to use the name “Motherland” on posters, on the Internet, in mass media,” said Andrei Gerasimov. -- We are not yet initiating bans on the use of the Rodina brand, but I think that there is little time left. The legal consequences for Rogozin will be simple: he illegally uses the name on the website, in the faction and in the party.” In a word, even if SEPR fails to take away the brand from Dmitry Rogozin, it will be quite possible to complicate his life. True, SEPR still has enough worries: the party is awaiting re-registration with the Ministry of Justice, and in the party ranks there may be a shortage of 50 thousand members required by the current law.

Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA