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18/12/2024
Wednesday
18 December 
1970 France, on behalf of 25 EU countries, called for the decriminalization of same-sex relations.
1970 France, on behalf of 25 EU countries, called for the decriminalization of same-sex relations.
1970 The slavery was abolished in the United States.
1970 the slavery in the United States was abolished.
1970 The anthem of the Russian Empire “God Save the Tsar!” was performed for the first time.
THE OWNER OF ZHDUN LOST AN ACTION IN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS COURT
The lawsuits, filed in 2017 by CD Land Company, which bought the exclusive rights to the image of Zhdun from the Dutch artist Margaret Van Brevort, were quite successful. One of the first "victims" of the copyright holder was the Igramir Company which paid a compensation of nearly a million rubles as a result of a trial.
However, this time the copyright holder suffered a fiasco, continuing to sue the manufacturer of children's toys from St. Petersburg.
The story of how the Internet meme became the object of exclusive rights and its copyright holder started suing a significant number of companies, receiving millions of rubles in compensation, is quite old. Earlier, CD Land managed to get decent sums from many well-known companies, including the mobile operator Megafon (case A40-182074 / 2017), which paid 8.6 million rubles, the Spartak hockey club (for distribution of toys) and the Ozone portal (for the publication of the image in advertising and on the website).
It started when the Igramir Company, under a supply agreement, sold two thousand soft "aliens", looking almost identical to the figure of the elephant-like Zhdun, to CD Land.
The buyer was not going to pay for them, having filed a lawsuit against the seller for infringement of exclusive rights and said that it was a “test purchase”. At the same time, to the question of one of the judges why, instead of the minimum batch of 100 pieces, the copyright holder bought 20 times more "aliens", and then sold them at exorbitant prices, the plaintiff did not answer. Having bought toys at 373 rubles apiece, the CD Land Company enterprisingly sold them through Euroset chain at the price of 1290 rubles.
However, on August 8, 2020, the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg sided with VKontakte social network in the case of fashionable stickers containing the image of Zhdun. The court made a conclusion that the stickers were drawings created in the genre of parody or caricature, and such actions do not fall under the legislation on copyright infringement in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, there was a trial in which Igramir tried to contest the decision of the first instance, which in 2018 recovered compensation for violation of exclusive rights, as well as the costs incurred by the copyright holder for the purchase of toys and expert services ordered by the defendant.
As a result, the company managed to obtain a decision from the Intellectual Property Rights Court, which overturned the appeal ruling and sent the case for reconsideration.
The Supreme Court reminded the judges that the use of objects of exclusive rights on the instructions of the copyright holder does not imply the obligation to sign a license agreement. As a result, the suit of CD Land was rejected during the new consideration of the case that was later approved by the appeal court, which concluded that there was no similarity between the plush “alien” sewn by “Igramir” and “Zhdun”.
