An article entitled “Kikkoman’s Bottle Design Protected in Russia” by Mr. Haruo Goto, Mr. Kazutaka Otsuka and Mr. Ryota Hara of our firm (with Kikkoman Corporation) was published in January 2018 issue of the Japanese Intellectual property journal Chizai Prism

Jan 10, 2019

An article entitled “Kikkoman’s Bottle Design Protected in Russia” by Mr. Haruo Goto, Mr. Kazutaka Otsuka and Mr. Ryota Hara of our firm (with Kikkoman Corporation) was published in January 2018 issue of the Japanese Intellectual property journal Chizai Prism.

The article reports that we had filed a complaint with the competent authority in Russia (Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service [FAS]) to ban a Russian company from distributing soy sauce products, since the design of their soy sauce bottles was confusingly similar to that of Kikkoman’s iconic 150-ml soy sauce bottle. The FAS found that the company was liable for violation of the law on protection of competition and ordered the company to stop marketing its products. The originality and fame as trade dress of the design of Kikkoman’s 150-ml bottle in Russia has been recognized by the FAS on the basis of submitted items of evidence.