Prospects of Protecting the Right to a Trade Designation in Competitive Strategies of Economic Entities

Commercial designation is recognized in the Russian legislation as an object of exclusive rights and, according to the legislator’s thought, should be protected. However, the analysis of law enforcement practice during the whole period of validity of the fourth part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation leads to the idea that it is not possible to protect the right to commercial designation as an independent object. In this regard, the right to commercial designation in reality can only be an additional tool for obtaining compensation in connection with the infringement of trademark or trade name rights of the right holder, but does not have any independent value as an institution of intellectual property law.