Finnish Rovio Entertainment has agreed to a settlement agreement with retailer Novex from the Altai Krai region in a dispute over the sale of goods with counterfeit logos from the game Angry Birds. Both parties sent such statements to the Arbitration Court of the Novosibirsk Region, according to the file of arbitration cases.

The companies were asked to approve the settlement agreement at the stage of execution of the judicial act and to terminate enforcement proceedings. The court will consider their applications on November 18. Previously, Novex lost three courts to Rovio.

The courts found that Novex sold products with nine Rovio trademarks – images of “Red Bird,” “Black Bird,” “Yellow Bird,” “Blue” from November 19, 2017 to August 24, 2018 Birds, White Bird Matilda, Birds with a Long Beak, Pigs and Pigs with a Beard. Rovio, the game developer and rights holder, did not transfer the intellectual property rights to the retailer.

In November 2018, Rovio demanded that Novex withdraw counterfeit goods from sale. The retailer didn’t. The Finnish company went to court. In court, its representatives showed receipts confirming the purchase of counterfeit Angry Birds products in Novex stores in Novosibirsk, Khakassia, the Kemerovo Region, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

A representative of Novex said that the company did not know that it was counterfeit. The courts found this argument inconclusive. It also became clear in the courts that the goods that were the subject of litigation were delivered to the retailer by Calypso, which was liquidated in the spring of 2019.

In May, the Court of Arbitration of the Novosibirsk Region collected 4.5 million rubles in compensation from Novex in favour of Rovio for violation of the exclusive property rights of the brand owner. The retailer was also obliged to compensate the Finns about 5000 rubles, which were spent in Russian stores to buy counterfeit toys for trial.

The appeal and cassation confirmed the decision of the Novosibirsk arbitration and did not reduce the amount of compensation.

Novex is a large Siberian trading network founded in 1990 in Barnaul. Its stores sell household chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes and household goods.

The Novosibirsk Region Arbitration noted that the retailer “is a professional participant in the toy import market from China” and also with an extensive network (Novex has three representation and 285 branches) and repeated infringement of the intellectual rights of various rights holders “creates a direct threat to the country’s licensing market.”

Rovio Entertainment develops and publishes mobile games, is the owner of various brands, the most popular of which is Angry Birds. The company is based in the Finnish city of Espoo.