Google Orion

2022: Google's Trademark Denial

In November 2022, Rospatent refused Google to register the Google Orion trademark. The department believes that the company did not provide enough arguments to justify the first refusal to trademark a special Google Orion system.

Google Orion gives users the ability to seamlessly switch from a cellular signal on a Wi-Fi network even during a voice call. This is achieved by providing access to cellular operators from providers of public Wi-Fi networks. Thus, a stable signal is achieved even in places without good cellular communication.

Rospatent refused Google to register the Google Orion trademark due to similarities with the brand of the Siberian telecom operator

Earlier, Rospatent rejected the registration, as it considered that the name Google Orion very much echoes the existing name of the Orion Telecom operator, as well as other signs similar in name and images, for example, the Scientific and Implementation Enterprise Bolid, Orion Real Estate agency and others.

Then in August 2022, Google tried to challenge the decision, pointing to the following arguments:

• The emphasis in the name of the sign is on the word Google, which stands at the beginning, therefore, attention is focused on it and allows you to associate the sign with the company;
• Some companies have the word Orion in their name, but additional pictorial elements or verbal combinations allow them to be distinguished from each other;
• Several trademarks have already been registered in the name of Google, and the company's search engine is "well known to the Russian consumer" as a search service provider, which ranks second among all search engines in Russia.

The head of AVG Legal, Alexei Gavrishev, in a conversation with RBC, noted that the decision on this application "looks justified," since the Rospatent board determined it by the fact that earlier companies with the word Orion in their name were already registered in Russia.^[1]

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