Milk coup: Bill Gates' company wants to take away the rights to own the Minecraft brand in Russia from the milk producer

Recently it turned out that the Minecraft brand in Russia does not belong to Microsoft with their eponymous player, as many might think, but to a dairy manufacturer. To make matters worse, the brand owner is not making much use of their still-owned rights to the Minecraft brand. Microsoft decided to regain the right to this brand and are ready to sue City LLC, on which the trade mark is registered.

An RBC employee reported that, having called the contact number indicated in City LLC, he went to Kolomenskoye Milk, under which both City and Minecraft are listed. A spokesperson for a milk company said the company had offered Microsoft a collaboration and was ready to make dairy products under the Minecraft trademark, but Microsoft abandoned the idea.

After that, "Kolomenskoye Milk" wanted to register the Minecraft trademark on behalf of "City" LLC and were going to start producing children's drinks from juice with whey. Due to the emerging insurmountable circumstances, the implementation of this idea failed. In 2016, "Kolomenskoye Milk" again received a demand from Microsoft to cede the Minecraft brand, but they again proposed a collaboration with Bill Geist's company. The latter again refused, as they needed the rights to register the Minecraft brand.

This month Microsoft did not bother and filed a lawsuit against City LLC, where they asked to stop protecting the Minecraft trademark, since it is simply not used. Representatives of the Kolomenskoye Moloko company said that they have not yet received an invitation to the court, but if the court demands to abandon the trademark, the dairy producer will meet halfway.

The lawyers whom RBC contacted for advice do not give a clear answer. Some believe that Kolomenskoye Moloko just skillfully took advantage of the situation and acted within the framework of professional standards, while others believe that the milk producer has practically seized someone else's brand and now wants to profit from it. Both of them believe that Microsoft should not face insurmountable difficulties and will win the court without any problems and take away the rights to own the Minecraft brand in Russia.