- Статьи
- Economy
- AI what's next: an Italian company has achieved the cancellation of the trademark "Ballerina Cappuccino" in the Russian Federation
AI what's next: an Italian company has achieved the cancellation of the trademark "Ballerina Cappuccino" in the Russian Federation
A viral character from TikTok has become the subject of a dispute over the rights to AI-created art. Rospatent canceled the registration of the trademark "Ballerina Cappuccino", which Russian entrepreneur Sergey Bocharov received in the fall of 2025. The Italian company Officina Comunicazione claimed earlier rights to the Ballerina Cappuccino image, and the agency recognized its arguments as well-founded. The image in the Russian trademark completely coincided with the work owned by the company, follows from the materials of the Chamber of Patent Disputes. Rospatent's decision may become a precedent in one of the first notable disputes over the commercialization of Internet memes and characters created using AI, lawyers say. Izvestia investigated how realistic it is to protect the rights to such a hero if his popularity arose on the Internet.
How the Cappuccino Ballerina was "canceled" in Russia
On August 14, 2026, Rospatent cancelled the registration of the Ballerina Cappuccino trademark in Russia, which entrepreneur Sergey Bocharov received in the fall of 2025. This follows from the materials of the Chamber for Patent Disputes, which were reviewed by Izvestia. The agency made the decision at the request of the Italian company Officina Comunicazione. Rospatent found that the image in the disputed sign completely coincides with the work owned by the company, and its verbal part is a transliteration of the name Ballerina Cappuccino.
Ballerina Cappuccino is a character in the Italian Brainrot genre, which appeared on TikTok at the beginning of last year. This is an AI-created ballerina with a cappuccino cup instead of a head. The character in the videos is often accompanied by synthetic Italian speech and rhythmic, intentionally meaningless phonetics. Officina considers the characters associated with Italian Brainrot as commercial objects and develops them, including beyond digital content, Valeria Larionova, a lawyer for Nextons, who represents the company's interests in Russia, told Izvestia. According to her, the Skifidol Italian Brainrot Cuties 3D line is part of a strategy to bring characters to the consumer goods market. The company intends to protect intellectual property related to Italian Brainrot in other markets, including Russia, the lawyer added. It was not possible to contact Sergey Bocharov.
Sergey Bocharov's application for registration of a priority mark dated August 1, 2025 was registered on October 28 of the same year. The protection extended to goods of the 28th class of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICTS), including games and toys, as well as services of the 35th class. The Italian company challenged the registration in January 2026, stating that it had earlier rights to depict the Ballerina Cappuccino character. In support of her arguments, she submitted to Rospatent documents on her ownership of the exclusive rights to the work of art, registration of the work with the National Copyright Office of China, as well as documents on the industrial design of the figurine of the character. According to the Italian company, the character was created by designer Andrea Marchesi, after which he entered the Skifidol Italian Brainrot Cuties 3D collection. The priority of the industrial design of the figurine is set on June 26, 2025, that is, before the date of filing the Russian trademark registration application.
Separately, Officina pointed out that the name "Cappuccino Ballerina" is associated with the phenomenon of Italian Brainrot. The company noted that such images were used by many users and sellers, so their registration by one person could limit the use of popular cultural images. At the same time, the reason for the cancellation of the registration was that the Italian company had rights to a work of art and an industrial design that coincided with the designation registered in Russia. Rospatent recognized Officina Comunicazione as an interested party and fully satisfied its objection, the decision says.
Is it possible for a business to protect AI art
This is one of the first such disputes in Russia involving AI characters, said Yuri Yakhin, advisor to the Intellectual property practice at Melling, Voitishkin & Partners. At the same time, attempts to register popular phrases, Internet names, and memes as trademarks are now common. He cited "Rossiano" and "Get up, we dropped everything" as examples, when entrepreneurs sought to register designations before others.
Sometimes Rospatent independently refuses to register such names, but in some cases such applications pass, explained Yuri Yakhin. In the case under consideration, the reason for the cancellation of registration was the reproduction of a specific image, the exclusive rights to which arose earlier, said Ekaterina Tretyakova, adviser to Verba Legal.
Entrepreneurs can secure the rights to the name of a viral Internet character using a trademark, Yuri Yakhin noted. However, just submitting an application before competitors is not enough, Ekaterina Tretyakova emphasized. The designation must be distinctive, and its registration must not violate the earlier rights of others.
However, the cancellation of trademark registration in itself does not mean a ban on the sale of all products with the image of the "Cappuccino Ballerina," lawyers say. In this case, the dispute concerned a specific image, Ekaterina Tretyakova explained. However, according to Yuri Yakhin, if the image and the name of the character are protected by copyright, the sale of such figures without the consent of the copyright holder does not comply with the norms of law.
The issue of the security of characters created with the help of AI remains controversial and is solved in different ways in different countries, he noted. For content created using neural networks, there is an additional question about how much of the result was created by human creative work, Ekaterina Tretyakova clarified.
At the same time, the general principle of such disputes is that if there is a creative contribution from a person, the created object can receive copyright protection, said Yuri Yakhin. If there was no creative work, there may be no legal protection for such an object. In this case, the Italian company submitted documents confirming its copyrights, but the entrepreneur did not refute them, the lawyer emphasized.
This case may affect other similar disputes, experts say. First of all, it can become a practical guideline for applicants and copyright holders, Ekaterina Tretyakova noted. According to her, trademark registration does not eliminate the risk of its subsequent challenge due to earlier image rights. For businesses, documents confirming the creation of a specific version of a character, including interim versions, changes made and other materials that allow them to show their own creative contribution, are becoming especially important, she concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
