On the Delimitation of Legal Protection of Means of Individualization Depending on Their Application in a Competitive or other Field of Activity

The author, based on an analysis of the norms of legislation governing the legal protection of means of individualization, which are used in economic circulation to individualize subjects and their products, comes to the conclusion that, depending on the goals of the subjects, the legal protection of means of individualization has objective differences that not everyone finds. reflected in the legislation, but they should be taken into account when resolving disputes.

Purpose of the study. Reveal differences in the legal protection of means of individualization, depending on the scope and purpose of the activities of economic entities in order to take them into account when resolving disputes.

Methods: a set of dialectical and system research methods. The general scientific method (systemic, logical) and the specially legal method (formal-legal), as well as the analysis of sources and literature on this issue, were used.

Results. When resolving disputes regarding means of individualization, one should take into account the scope and purpose of the activity of an economic entity that applies its right to a means of individualization: the competitive scope of application of the means of individualization by commercial legal entities and the non-competitive scope of activities of non-profit organizations (NPOs). The protection of an NPO’s trademark right as a means to individualize an entity’s activities and products should apply only to their products, and not to prohibit another NPO from using the name. To citizens, including self-employed citizens, holders of the right to trademarks, similar rules should be applied as to entities using means of individualization in a non-competitive field of activity. The name of the NPO according to the function performed should be recognized as the same means of individualization as the company name. The difference lies in the nature of the established right: a non-property civil right to a name that an NPO has the right to use exclusively in front of other NPOs. The right to a name extends to the same (identical) name, in contrast to the exclusive right to a trade name and trademark, which extends not only to an identical, but also to a designation confusingly similar to it.