Sorainen was appointed by US company CrossFit to protect its intellectual property rights in the Baltic countries and Belarus. CrossFit performs on-going monitoring to prevent unlawful infringement of its intellectual property – the CROSSFIT trade mark. The company has invested significant resources to develop and popularise this trade mark; thus, it has become a widely-known trade mark in Latvia and globally. CrossFit grants rights to use this trade mark only to those licensed partners who have passed the respective training to ensure that their workouts meet certain quality requirements.
CrossFit has detected that at least one fitness club is Latvia uses the CROSSFIT trade mark without a corresponding licence in its business in Latvia. Attorneys representing CrossFit have sent a warning to the fitness club regarding the unlawfulness of this action and asked the club to stop the unauthorised use of the trade mark. The warning proposes once again to conclude an official licensing agreement with CrossFit, if this company still wants to use the trade mark.
CrossFit has indicated that it would keep monitoring fitness clubs operating in the Latvian market, who use the CROSSFIT sign or other confusingly similar signs to promote their services. Use of such signs in business without CrossFit consent is not allowed and contradicts the regulatory enactments of the European Union and Latvia regarding trade mark protection, and also violates prohibition of unfair competition. If fitness clubs keep ignoring the sent warnings, CrossFit will go to court to stop these violations.
CrossFit asks consumers to be careful and to make sure that any club that uses CROSSFIT in its name or advertising has obtained the relevant licence.
Partner Agris Repšs and senior associate Andris Tauriòš helps CrossFit in solving intellectual property issues.
