Actual Problems of Legal Regulation of Trademarks and Service Marks

Abstract

In June 2022, the State Duma adopted a Federal law that amended the provisions of the Civil Code regarding the regulation of trademarks. In accordance with the amendments, trademark registration is available not only to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, but also to individuals. The legal basis for this was the introduction of the status of self-employed, who has the right to conduct business and, accordingly, may need to register their own trademark. The legislation in force earlier did not allow such an opportunity. It should be noted that the new introduced norm is not without drawbacks, one of which should be called the controversial wording "by all citizens, including the self-employed". In accordance with this formulation, it turns out that every citizen has the right to register a trademark, even one who does not have the status of self-employed. However, the legislation clearly prohibits the conduct of entrepreneurial activity without obtaining the status of self-employed, individual entrepreneur or registration of a legal entity. In this case, it becomes unclear why a citizen who is not engaged in entrepreneurial activity may need to register a trademark. This article is devoted to the discussion of this problem.