ESTA Holding responds to Capital Edition request.

26.06.2013

Trade mark “Hotel Opera” was registered in 2003 and at present belongs to SCM Ltd. In 2006 an application for registration a mark with inscription “Opera” for the Hotel in Lviv was submitted to "Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute" ("Ukrapatent") and subsequently satisfied in 2007. Besides, in 2010 another mark with inscription “Opera” was registered for entertainment center in Dnipropetrivsk.

The presence of three similar trademarks may cause confusion and negatively affect the reputation of Opera Hotel (Kyiv). Therefore we have made a decision on contestation the legality of aforementioned trademarks registration. The claim to the owner of trade mark of entertainment center in Dnipropetrivsk was satisfied and the decision has gone into effect. The Court of primary jurisdiction dismissed the claim to “Opera” Hotel (Lviv) due to omission of the limitation term. However, the Court had to establish the fact of breach of our rights before application the limitation term. And the Court has established such breach.

Taking into consideration the conclusions of forensic enquiry, the Court in the declaration of intent established the fact of nonconformity of the mark for goods and services, owned by Opera (Lviv), to the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Rights to Marks for Goods and Services”. The Court also acknowledged that it constitutes the grounds to recognize the contested evidence, owned by “Opera” (Lviv), to be partially (as related to hotel and related services) invalid. At present we are preparing an appeal as in our opinion the limitation term has not been omitted.

Protection of trademarks and their licensing is the widespread world practice. The mark belongs to SCM Ltd. and is used on legal grounds. The renaming of the hotel is not planned.