Chinese company Zhumadian Dali Tianjun Special Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd. filed a trademark application No. 2023825421 “” in Class 12. The Russian patent office refused registration,  in response to which the applicant filed an appeal on May 12, 2025 against the decision of the patent office. The patent office justified  its decision by the fact that the designation is the name of a Qinghai county in China on the border with Gansu province (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g1839079-Tianjun_County_Haixi_Mongol_and_Tibetan_Autonomous_Prefecture_Qinghai-Vacations.html）.

In the opinion of the Examiner, the designation lacked distinctive character and indicated  the place of manufacture of goods. The applicant who filed the trademark application is located in Zhumadian City, Henan Province, which means that the claimed designation with the word element “TianJun” is not acceptable because it may mislead consumers regarding the location of manufacture of goods.

The applicant did not agree with the opinion of the patent office. He argued that the source on the internet found by the Examiner does not contain information showing that a little- known county in China named “TianJun” produces goods in Class 12. Hence, that source of information is not sufficient to affirm that “Tianjun” location is known for exports of cars to Russia. Besides, the first element of the word “TianJun”, i.e. “Tian” means heaven or cosmos which imparts a semantic meaning to the word while “Jun” may mean a monarch, ruler, gentleman, lord. As a result, the word may mean a “heavenly ruler” and the like. So Russian consumers will perceive the word as a coined word incapable of confusing them in respect of the place where the goods are produced.

The applicant company was set up in 2014 and is one of the biggest companies producing cargo trailers, more than 30 thousand annually. “TianJun” is a familiar designation labelling trailers, dump trucks, refrigerated trucks and other special vehicles. The goods labelled “TianJun” have been  exported to Russia from 2023 and the applicant even took part in the exposition of commercial vehicles in Moscow in late 2024.

The applicant registered the trademark “TianJun” in Class 12 in China and Vietnam. In fact, this argument put forward by the applicant has more psychological importance than anything else.

Hence the applicant asked the collegium of the Chamber of Patent Disputes to grant the appeal and  register the trademark. The applicant supported his claim by providing numerous documents confirming his arguments.

The Chamber of Patent Disputes stated that the little-known geographical names that are not perceived by an average consumer should not be prohibited from registration. In this connection, it was necessary to investigate whether that geographical place is famous or not. The Chamber examined the sources where the name Tianjun appears on the internet. It found that these are foreign internet sites containing information translated into English. A major part of Russian people is not familiar with the English language so those information sources cannot be viewed as available to the average Russian consumer.   

Indeed, Wikipedia shows that Tianjun county is a small geographical place in China that includes three villages and seven townships with the population less than 34 thousand people.

The claimed list of goods includes transport vehicles and parts. However, none of the sources of information confirms that there are any industrial enterprises on Tianjun territory. In fact, Zhumadian Dalitianjun Special Vehicle Manufacturing Co. manufactures its products in Zhumadian city.

Therefore it is not possible to conclude that the designation “TianJun” is perceived by an average Russian consumer as a place of manufacture of goods in Class 12. Since it is not possible to establish associative links with the place of manufacture of the goods, the consumers will not connect the goods to the place of their manufacture.

After prolonged deliberation, the Chamber of Patent Disputes cancelled the decision of the patent office, granted the appeal, and decided to register the trademark.

This is a lucky outcome of the case. Nevertheless, onething stands out—the Chinese company was selling its goods in Russia for several years without registering its trademark. While this time the Chinese company came out of it unscathed, in many cases this results in a pirate registration of a trademark and subsequent expensive fight against the trademark squatter.