A company from Kazakhstan was refused registration of a trademark "Turan" applied for soft drinks.

According to Rospatent, the word "Turan" is the name of a city and a river in the Republic of Tyva (Russian Federation). This information is available on the Internet. Therefore, the disputed designation would be mistakenly perceived by the consumer as the location of the company and the place of origin of its goods. Taking into account the applicant's location (Kazakhstan), Rospatent found that the designation applied for registration could also mislead consumers.

The IP Court did not agree with this position.

According to the IP Court, Rospatent did not provide evidence of the widespread familiarity of the geographical name "Turan", but in fact only established the existence of the urban settlement Turan in the Republic of Tyva in the Russian Federation with a population of 5,044 people. The information found by Rospatent does not confirm that the word element "Turan" has a geographical rather than a fanciful connotation for the relevant Russian consumers.

The IP Court noted that the mere presence of a small amount of information about the disputed designation on the Internet does not in itself indicate that it is known to Russian consumers as a geographical name. Otherwise would presume that any place and any river, the information about which is contained on the Internet, are known to Russian citizens.

The emergence of certain associative links cannot be established merely on the basis of the fact that some information was posted on an Internet site by an unknown person. It is necessary to assess the length of time such information has been posted on the Internet, the number of views and citations of the information, etc.