Legal protection of brand elements through the brandbook

What a company encounters when attempting to protect a brand

Usually, the situation looks like this: a former dealer or a designer who created the guidelines copied the logo, or after a year began using the same elements for a competitor. The company opens the brandbook to 'prove rights,' and discovers that the document is written in a language of recommendations, not legal obligations. It contains no references to registration, no clear prohibitions, and no data on who owns the rights to specific graphic elements. In court, such a brandbook is just an illustration, not evidence.

Why a brandbook is not 'just a booklet': three different levels of protection

Here, three different legal entities are confused, and this should be sorted out. Copyright on a brandbook as a composite work arises automatically upon creation and belongs to whoever wrote and formatted it — unless transferred by contract. Copyright on individual elements (logo, illustrations, patterns) is separate rights that may belong to different authors and require separate transfer. And a trademark is a completely different legal institution that does not arise automatically, but only after registration at Rospatent, and provides a presumption of ownership.

Hence the main conclusion: developing a brandbook without parallel trademark registration and without written contracts with designers is a beautiful, but legally empty packaging.

What documents need to be collected simultaneously with the brandbook development

According to article 1234 of the Russian Civil Code, a contract for the alienation of exclusive rights must be concluded in writing. If this is not done, the author — designer, studio, or employee — retains the right to use the created elements in other projects, even if they formally 'made them for you.' There is a real court case where the company did not formalize the transfer of rights to the style guide, and the designer later legally used the same elements for another client — the court ruled in his favor precisely due to the lack of a written contract.

The set of documents that must be finalized before or immediately after the development of the brandbook:

• A contract with a design studio or freelancer — must include a clause on the alienation of exclusive rights, not just 'provision of services';
• An act of transfer of exclusive rights listing specific files and elements (not 'logo', but 'logo, version 3, file logo_v3.ai');
• A work-made-for-hire document — if the elements were created by an employee, an order and documented confirmation are needed that the work was part of his job duties;
• A trademark application at Rospatent — simultaneously with the approval of the final version of the logo;
• NDA with contractors, if the brandbook includes confidential data on positioning and strategy.

What should be included in the 'Rules of Use' section so that the brandbook works in a complaint and in court

A section that in most brandbooks has a recommendatory nature must be rewritten in legal language. The formulation 'it is not recommended to distort the proportions of the logo' is worthless in a claim. The formulation 'changing brand elements is prohibited without written permission from the owner' is already a working argument.

Mandatory items in this section:

• Numbers of certificates from Rospatent for registered trademarks and the International Classification for Goods and Services (Nice Classification) classes they belong to;
• Rules for marking — when to use ®, when ™, and why these should not be confused;
• Procedure for obtaining permission from third parties to use brand elements, including contact details of the responsible person;
• A direct prohibition on changing the color, proportions, and composition of the logo — specifically in the formulation of 'prohibition,' not 'not recommended';
• Conditions for terminating the right to use — for partners and franchisees, this is a separate critical point (see below).

How the brandbook is used as evidence in a claim and lawsuit

Judges do not read the brandbook as an artistic album — they are interested in specific pages: the document approval date, the section with registered marks and certificate numbers, and the section on usage rules with direct prohibitions. It is these pages that are attached to the claim as an appendix, demonstrating that the infringer knew or should have known about the rules.

The fact of the violation itself needs to be documented separately, and a brand guide will not help here. For online violations, the court accepts a notarial protocol of site inspection — with a screenshot of the address bar, date, and description of what occurred. Independent screenshots or archived copies via web.archive.org will suffice for out-of-court claims, to scare the infringer, but in court the judge will require more reliable evidence. For offline violations — controlled purchase with receipt and video recording of the process.

Court practice shows that compensation for infringement of exclusive rights to a trademark may vary from 10 thousand to 5 million rubles depending on the nature of the infringement. When choosing another method of recovery, the compensation may be doubled in amount of the cost of the goods or usage rights. A penalty may be established by contract and recovered if provided for in the parties' agreement. Such a penalty is a strong lever of pressure on those attempting to delay performance.

How to Protect Yourself from Partners, Franchisees and Dealers

A separate headache — not competitors, but former partners who continue to use the brand after the relationship has ended. A simple rule applies here: the consent to use the brand can be revoked at any time if this is stipulated in the contract. The brandbook and the franchise/dealer contract should contain:

1. A clear period of the brand usage right, tied to the term of the contract itself, not to 'as long as we cooperate';
2. An obligation to immediately cease using all trademark elements upon termination of the relationship — with a specific period, for example 5 working days;
3. Penalty sanctions for continued usage after termination — in the amount or percentage per day, similar to the INTELIGHT case;
4. Appendix to the contract — a excerpt from the brandbook with a list of protected elements and trademark registration certificate numbers, to avoid disputes over what is exactly protected.

How much does it cost and why one should not economize on registration

Trademark registration in Rospatent takes 12–18 months. Government fees in 2026 year — from 35 thousand rubles per one Nice class plus 3,5 thousand for each additional class; the electronic discount of 30% was canceled starting October 2024 year, so it is no longer possible to save on filing through the personal account. Patent bureau services for monitoring usually add another 54–80 thousand rubles. The final amount of 90–130 thousand rubles scares small business, but compare it to the compensation of 500 thousand rubles awarded by the court — registration pays off even in the first case.

Saving at this stage is the most common mistake: the company spends the budget on an expensive brandbook with a detailed guideline, but delays trademark registration 'until later', and then discovers that a similar name is already taken, forcing them to redo the entire visual brand code from scratch.