Samsung sued in Russia, not by Apple this time

It appears that there’s yet another lawsuit filed against Samsung, and this time it’s in Russia. Before you think that Apple is chasing Samsung with lawsuits to all corners of the globe, this is not the case here, but rather a Volga-based company, Simbirsk-Crown, is the one doing the suing here.

The company is suing Samsung on the grounds that Samsung allegedly infringed upon the “Galaxy” name, which the company claims they have been using to sell home appliances for the past two years, claiming that the revenue generated by said home appliances is several million pounds per year.

According to the Russian trademark registry, Simbirsk-Crown apparently registered the Galaxy name in May 2011, while Samsung registered theirs in July 2011 under the class 9, which is apparently the class that covers smartphones and other electrical goods. As we’re not familiar with the legal system and intellectual property rights in Russia, we have to take this at face value, but it seems that Simbirsk-Crown is demanding that Samsung pay them $90 million in compensation.

Not content with just suing Samsung, they are also apparently after retailers who sold Samsung’s products, and are requesting that the retailers compensate them $3.47 million each. We’re not sure if Simbirsk-Crown actually has a case here, but either way it looks like Samsung just can’t seem to catch a break, and in an ironic (or perhaps cruel?) twist of fate, this lawsuit was served on the same day they started selling their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Russia.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, Tablets
Tags: Intel, lawsuit, russia, Samsung, trademark