Vostochny Express Bank recently won a trademark lawsuit over Bank Rossiisky Capital over the exclusive use of Russian adjectives meaning ‘Christmas’ and ‘New Year’ as trademarks.

Andrei Yemelin - Executive Vice-President of the Association of Russian Banks, though not criticizing the Moscow court’s verdict, expresses his displeasure over Vostochny Express's  move of patenting such widely used common words.

“Our reaction to steps like this is negative. This creates conditions for unfair competition”, he observed. “There are plenty of other ways for a bank to make some cash, and this should not be one of them”, he said disapproving the move.

Banks are now crowding the office of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks to patent commonly used words on their deposits, loans or credit card products. Vostochny reportedly charges 300,000 Rubles ($9,600) to other banks if they wish to use their patented trademarks, which includes the words New Year and Christmas. Last heard, Sberbank has patented its tagline ‘Card of your wishes’ in Russian while HSBC is in the process of getting ‘HSBC Private Bank’ patented.