McDonald’s closed 850 branded stores in Russia two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine. It has become an “iconic” suspension and, with hundreds of companies leaving the country when the sanctions were launched, criticism and threats from the Russian government followed.
In the Russian Parliament there was talk of creating a network that would replace the North American hamburger factory and in the meantime a patent application appeared with a logo that does not deceive anyone, quite the contrary. McDonald’s M arcs bend 90 degrees to the right and visually become a B, which in the Cyrillic alphabet corresponds to V: the brand that appears as a candidate for the hamburger throne is called Tio Vanya. Detail: the company that owns this brand, a Russian giant in the sale of canned vegetables, says it has nothing to do with the case.
The file containing the information concerning the application for registration of the McDonald’s “clone” is dated March 12 and corresponds to the data of the Rospatent, Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property. THE news was advanced on Thursday by the RIA Novosti news agency, which belongs to the Russian government.
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“Russia will have a Tio Vanya brand with a logo similar to McDonald’s”, title at RIA Novostireferring to the fact that “a canned food manufacturer designs the brand name Dyadya Vanya [adaptação do cirílico]”, indicating the parent company of this name, Ruspole Brands, and guaranteeing that the patent application was granted as is at the patent”The applicant intends to register its mark” in the classification class for “cafeterias, cafes, restaurants, bar services, canteens, cooking and home delivery services, etc. “The order is still pending,” he adds.
But already this Friday, Uncle Vanya (Дядя Ваня), who will be inspired for his baptism of the classic player namesake of master Anton Chekhov, published in your to place an image with False (False) about the alleged logo that swapped the M for the B/V and threatened to sue anyone who dared use his name for an intellectual property war.
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The statement is conclusive: “We inform you that the legal entities of Ruspole Brands and the Tio Vanya brand have no connection with the logocreated as a clone, using the inverted M of the string fast food McDonalds, which is shaped like the letter B in Cyrillic. Information on the Internet about alleged plans to replace the McDonald’s brand with the Tio Vanya brand, which we have, is false.
The note, published in to place company manager (only in Russian, does not appear in the international version of the page), it also leaves a promise: “persons who use the Tio Vanya brand nyour images in the field of restoration can be the subject of an action for damages”. And a guarantee, which however leaves a “but” of open doors in the air: “The company does not currently plan to launch a chain of catering establishments, but does not abandon such an idea in the future.. The case has all the ingredients to make many people’s mouths water while they wait for the next fries to make history.
In the Russian Parliament, Viacheslav Volodin, president of this legislative body, had already spoken out in favor of replacing the American channel, which “uses Russian raw materials”, with a “domestic channel”: “Tomorrow there should no longer be McDonald’s, but Uncle Vanya’s”, said on March 10, declaring that all jobs must be maintained. McDonald’s employs 62,000 people in the country and, despite the “temporary closure” of restaurants, has assured that it will continue to pay salaries.
In the most belligerent speeches of comments on the closure of international companies in Russia, the government has threatened to ignore patents related to countries considered hostile. Putin mentioned a possible plans to nationalize companies who have decided to abandon or suspend their activity in the country.
