6 ms·

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a co

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-seizure/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/61357256 https://www.bbc.com/news/61357256

GekkePrutser 4y ago
That's true, but abandoning them will be a guarantee they won't be respected. At least there is some leverage and the ability to wage a lawsuit. But I agree there is little chance it will succeed.
hippich 4y ago
Yeah, in the short term, any property rights of foreign organizations in russia is probably not something to rely on. On the other hand, regimes do fall and organization can survive long enough for the policy in russia to change. So it makes sense at least have a claim for trademark (because right now it is really a claim, not a property, since russia can take it away any time it wants)
- laserdancepony 4y ago
  Remember that the local Coca Cola branch survived in Nazi Germany during the war and even launched a new product: Fanta.
  - mushbino 4y ago
    Many US companies did business with the Nazis through subsidiaries. IBM, Coca cola, Chase Manhattan bank, Ford, etc.
JohnBooty 4y ago
It's like saying a prayer when your plane is about to crash and there's nothing else you can do. Probably won't amount to much, but what's the downside? In McD's case, there's tremendous upside. Perhaps it will be feasible for them to operate there again someday.
jcranmer 4y ago
Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.
- cft 4y ago
  I don't think those pipelines are very useful without gas
  - travisgriggs 4y ago
    Nor is the gas very useful without the pipelines. Mutually assured de-gasification as it were.
- qalmakka 4y ago
  Putin cares too much about his internal front. He will gladly throw any foreign property owned by the Russian state under the bus if he thinks giving the Russians the foreign brands they are accustomed to can quell any disobedience or unrest. Either Russia takes the nationalistic route and converts all of its fast food joints to Uncle Vania's, or it will surely reopen its McDonalds while violating their brands. I don't really think they give a damn anyway, their business relations with the West are gone for good and they won't be mended any time soon. Russia makes most of its money from primary sector exports (grains, oil, gas, minerals, ...), and that's basically the only thing they care about. They are building new markets in Asia for that, in countries like China that definitely don't give a damn about Burger King's IP or whatever. They know that unless Putin is deposed tomorrow and Russia demilitarises the Europeans will switch to LNG and North African natural gas anyway, they are just playing ball with what they have. Also, those properties in the West would probably get confiscated or sequestered very soon anyway.
  - Tozen 4y ago
    I think you are right. I don't see many options for Putin. Russia's relationship to Western businesses is gone for at least a decade. Putin's best option is to confiscate any Western properties and businesses that won't play ball with him. Russia has become a pariah state, so it can just keep walking down that path anyway.
Hamuko 4y ago
Didn't they already basically legalise pirating western software?
adictator 4y ago
DocTomoe 4y ago
Even the Nazis did not try to resurrect the Coca-Cola brand when it disappeared - they made their own thing and called it Fanta. Just saying.
lettergram 4y ago
- soared 4y ago
  From your link it looks like Russia was breaking the treaty in many different ways.
- tremon 4y ago
  Prior to the invasion Ukraine was breaking their treaty Sure. The DPR is complete the same as Ukraine, right? > By January 2015, the Minsk Protocol ceasefire had completely collapsed [f]ollowing the separatist victory at Donetsk International Airport in defiance of the Protocol, DPR spokesman Eduard Basurin said that "the Minsk Memorandum will not be considered in the form it was adopted"
mushbino 4y ago
The US has preemptively invaded many countries and still very much respects trademarks.

GekkePrutser 4y ago

That's true, but abandoning them will be a guarantee they won't be respected. At least there is some leverage and the ability to wage a lawsuit. But I agree there is little chance it will succeed.

hippich 4y ago

Yeah, in the short term, any property rights of foreign organizations in russia is probably not something to rely on. On the other hand, regimes do fall and organization can survive long enough for the policy in russia to change. So it makes sense at least have a claim for trademark (because right now it is really a claim, not a property, since russia can take it away any time it wants)

laserdancepony 4y ago
Remember that the local Coca Cola branch survived in Nazi Germany during the war and even launched a new product: Fanta.
- mushbino 4y ago
  Many US companies did business with the Nazis through subsidiaries. IBM, Coca cola, Chase Manhattan bank, Ford, etc.

JohnBooty 4y ago

It's like saying a prayer when your plane is about to crash and there's nothing else you can do. Probably won't amount to much, but what's the downside? In McD's case, there's tremendous upside. Perhaps it will be feasible for them to operate there again someday.

jcranmer 4y ago

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

cft 4y ago
I don't think those pipelines are very useful without gas
- travisgriggs 4y ago
  Nor is the gas very useful without the pipelines. Mutually assured de-gasification as it were.
qalmakka 4y ago
Putin cares too much about his internal front. He will gladly throw any foreign property owned by the Russian state under the bus if he thinks giving the Russians the foreign brands they are accustomed to can quell any disobedience or unrest. Either Russia takes the nationalistic route and converts all of its fast food joints to Uncle Vania's, or it will surely reopen its McDonalds while violating their brands. I don't really think they give a damn anyway, their business relations with the West are gone for good and they won't be mended any time soon. Russia makes most of its money from primary sector exports (grains, oil, gas, minerals, ...), and that's basically the only thing they care about. They are building new markets in Asia for that, in countries like China that definitely don't give a damn about Burger King's IP or whatever. They know that unless Putin is deposed tomorrow and Russia demilitarises the Europeans will switch to LNG and North African natural gas anyway, they are just playing ball with what they have. Also, those properties in the West would probably get confiscated or sequestered very soon anyway.
- Tozen 4y ago
  I think you are right. I don't see many options for Putin. Russia's relationship to Western businesses is gone for at least a decade. Putin's best option is to confiscate any Western properties and businesses that won't play ball with him. Russia has become a pariah state, so it can just keep walking down that path anyway.

Hamuko 4y ago

Didn't they already basically legalise pirating western software?

adictator 4y ago

DocTomoe 4y ago

Even the Nazis did not try to resurrect the Coca-Cola brand when it disappeared - they made their own thing and called it Fanta. Just saying.

lettergram 4y ago

soared 4y ago
From your link it looks like Russia was breaking the treaty in many different ways.
tremon 4y ago
Prior to the invasion Ukraine was breaking their treaty Sure. The DPR is complete the same as Ukraine, right? > By January 2015, the Minsk Protocol ceasefire had completely collapsed [f]ollowing the separatist victory at Donetsk International Airport in defiance of the Protocol, DPR spokesman Eduard Basurin said that "the Minsk Memorandum will not be considered in the form it was adopted"

mushbino 4y ago

The US has preemptively invaded many countries and still very much respects trademarks.