Russia is Fastest-Growing Trademark-Protecting Country Globally According to Intellectual Property Analysis from Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters Special Report: "Trademarks in Russia" shows Russian trademark registrations increased 46 percent from 2004 to 2009

EAGAN, Minnesota, August 19, 2010 - Brand protection in Russia is on the rise, according to a detailed
intellectual property report titled Trademarks in Russia: Growing
Opportunities, Major Challenges, released by the Thomson CompuMark business
of Thomson Reuters today. Russian trademark registrations increased by 46
percent from 2004 to 2009, the largest increase of any major trademark-
protecting country worldwide. This is in comparison to China and the United
States, which saw an increase in registrations of 3 and 6 percent,
respectively, for that same period.

In addition to a detailed statistical analysis of trademark
registrations, objections and claims conducted using the Thomson Reuters
SAEGIS database, the report outlines the history of trademark law in Russia,
featuring expert perspectives from Eugene A. Arievich of the CIS Intellectual
Property Practice Group, and Pavel Gorokhov, Counsel at the Moscow office of
Baker & McKenzie.

Following are some of the key observations of the report:

    - Trademark Registrations Rapidly Expanding: Despite the geographic,
      political and linguistic complexity of the Russian market, trademark
      registrations increased by 46 percent between 2004 and 2009; a total of
      36,436 trademarks were registered in the region in 2009, signaling
      Russia's growing prominence as a viable commercial market for the
      world's manufacturers.
    - Cyrillic Alphabet Poses Challenges: Some letters that look identical to
      those in the Latin alphabet are pronounced completely differently in the
      Cyrillic alphabet, making it important for those filing trademarks in
      Russia to register marks using both the Cyrillic spelling and its Latin
      equivalent. According to Russian trademark law and practice, trademark
      similarity is established on the basis of a combination of phonetic,
      visual and semantic criteria.

"As the world's leading provider of global trademark solutions, Thomson
CompuMark keeps its finger on the pulse of international trademark trends, so
our clients can stay on the cutting edge of brand development and emerging
markets," said Martin Burke, general manager of Thomson CompuMark. "And with
SAEGIS, our premiere trademark search solution, customers are confident they
are accessing the most complete coverage of trademark information globally.
With collections from more than 200 countries, including the Russian
Federation, SAEGIS enables IP professionals to quickly find the information
they need for critical brand decisions - all from a single source."

The data in this report was compiled using SAEGIS to identify trends in
trademark applications, registrations, objections and claims between 2004 and
2009.

To view the full report, Trademarks in Russia: Growing Opportunities,
Major Challenges, go to ip.thomsonreuters.com/RussiaTMreport/.

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Laura Gaze, IP Solutions, +1-203-868-3340, laura.gaze at thomsonreuters.com; or John Roderick, J. Roderick Inc., +1-631-656-9736, john at jroderick.com