The chronology of the proceedings was as follows:
On April 27, 2016, Brave Capital OÜ (hereinafter: Brave) filed an action against Arco Vara AS (hereinafter: Arco), requesting to prohibit Arco from using the domain name „veskimoldre.ee“, to establish Arco’s obligation to submit a declaration of intent to transfer the domain name to Brave and to replace the corresponding declaration of intent with a court judgment and to oblige Arco to refrain from registering a domain name that contains the sign “veskimoldre“.
Arco contested the action and contended that it should be dismissed. On May 16, 2016, Arco filed a counterclaim within the same civil matter, for annulment of Brave’s exclusive right that was registered in bad faith, in respect of the trademark “VESKIMÖLDRE”.
On March 27, 2017, the Harju County Court satisfied the action with its decision and dismissed the counterclaim. On April 26, 2017, Arco filed an appeal against the decision, in which it challenged the decision in full.
On October 09, 2017 The Tallinn Circuit Court annulled the judgment of the County Court in the part, in which the County Court satisfied the action and ordered the defendant to pay the expenses of the proceedings. In the annulled part, the circuit court made a new decision, where it dismissed Brave’s action and ordered the parties to bear their own procedure expenses. In other respects, the circuit court upheld the County Court’s judgment.
On June 13, 2018, the Supreme Court in turn annulled the judgment of the Circuit Court of October 09, 2017 and sent the matter again to the same Circuit Court to review its decision.
On January 29, 2019, the Tallinn Circuit Court annulled the original decision of the County Court of March 27, 2017, dismissed Brave’s action and satisfied Arco’s counterclaim. The circuit court declared Brave’s exclusive right to the sign “VESKIMÖLDRE”, registered as a trademark, invalid. The measures for securing the action were revoked. Brave was ordered to pay the procedure expenses.
On December 18, 2019, the Supreme Court again annulled the judgment of the Circuit Court of January 29, 2019 and sent the matter to the same Circuit Court to review its decision.
On June 30, 2020, the Tallinn Circuit Court annulled the original decision of the County Court of March 27, 2017, dismissed Brave’s action and satisfied Arco’s counterclaim. The circuit court declared Brave’s exclusive right to the sign “VESKIMÖLDRE”, registered as a trademark, invalid. The measures for securing the action were revoked. Brave was ordered to pay the procedure expenses of all the proceedings.
On June 30, 2020, Brave filed an appeal in cassation against the decision of the Tallinn Circuit Court and asked the Supreme Court to annul it once again.
By a court ruling of January 18, 2021, the Supreme Court did not accept the appeal in cassation of Brave Capital OÜ. As a result, the judicial decision of the circuit court fully entered into force on June 30, 2020 and Arco won the civil matter in full.
The final amount of the procedure expenses awarded against Brave to be paid to Arco will be determined by the Harju County Court.
Arco’s representatives in the civil matter were sworn advocate Rauno Kinkar (Law Office LEXTAL) and Patent Attorney Indrek Eelmets (Patent Office Käosaar).
