Point of law: whether it constitutes an unlawful use of the trademark on the part of an importer to place a designation which is confusingly similar to the trademark upon shipment-related documentation (such as invoice, packing list and compliance certificate)?

Alternative attitudes: 1) placing confusingly similar designation upon invoice, packing list and compliance certificate, which are neither labels not package and are not accessible to consumers may not constitute an illegal use of the trademark (the view of first instance court and the appellate court); or 2) an unlawful use of trademark may embrace, inter alia, placing trademark upon the documentation related to the importation of a commodity into the territory of the Russian Federation with the purpose to put it into civil circulation (the view of the panel of judges who submitted the case to the Presidium).

Ratio decidendi: the Presidium has deemed the second interpretation to be legally correct.

Practical consequences: the Judgment says that prior court decisions in analogous cases if inconsistent with this interpretation may be reversed in the procedure and within the limits envisaged by Art 311 of the Commercial Procedure Code.