The manufacturer of engine oils Castrol, which is owned by British BP, sued the writer and businessman Dmitry Lipskerov. The company is trying to obtain rights to the registered domain Castrol.ru. According to expert estimates, it could cost at least $50 thousand, but precedents for such cases are not in favor of the writer: in 2014, the Finnish Valio through the court forbade him to use the domain name Valio.ru.

British lubricant manufacturer Castrol Limited filed a lawsuit against Dmitry Lipskerov because of violation of trademark rights, follows from the file of arbitration cases. The third person on the claim is the registrar of domain names Ru-Center (Regional Network Information Center JSC). The preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 4. The essence of claims to Mr. Lipskerov is not indicated. The claim is by the copyright owner of the Castrol trademark to the administrator of the domain Castrol.ru, as explained the source of Kommerstant familiar with the situation. 

Back in 2007, a user named Alexey Lipskerov (which is the name of Dmitry Lipskerov's brother) suggested that users of the Ners.ru forum purchase the domain Castrol.ru, follows from his messages on the forum. "There is, for example, the idea of how to make sales of motor oil on it," he wrote. Now on the site there are only two videos on tests of automobile oils, among which is Castrol.

Dmitry and Alexey Lipskerov did not respond to the request of Kommersant. Castrol did not comment on the lawsuit, saying that BP, the parent company of Castrol, is protecting its trademarks around the world, which, if necessary, includes filing lawsuits. The Ru-Center confirmed that they are the third person in the process.

Dmitry Lipskerov is a writer and co-founder of the literary awards Debut and Neformat. He is also engaged in business: in particular, according to Kartoteka.ru, he co-founded the pharmaceutical company Oxigon along with the producer of Anschlag Alexander Dostman, the owner of the Eurasian Pipeline Consortium Alexander Karmanov and the fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin.

This is not the first such a lawsuit against Dmitry Lipskerov. In 2014, he lost the court to the Finnish Valio Ltd regarding the use of its trademark in the domain name Valio.ru, it follows from the file of arbitration cases. Valio Ltd also tried to recover from the defendant a compensation of 100 thousand rubles, but later abandoned this demand.

For Castrol this is also not the first such dispute in Russia. So, in 2013 the arbitration court satisfied the claim of the company to A. Igumnova for the sale of products under the trademarks Castrol, Edge and Magnatec. Now the company simultaneously conducts a litigation about the domain of Castrol.com.ru, registered by LLC InterAutoLeasing.

The defendant most likely has no chances, says Deputy Director General of the Coordination Center of the national domain of the Internet, Sergey Kopylov. "The owner of the trademark has the advantage in the dispute over the domain, except when the domain is initially used for non-commercial activities that does not overlap with the activities of the trademark owner," he explains.

The domain investor Pavel Gross agrees with him. "I think the domain was initially registered with the purpose of resale, no matter how much it costs, it will be taken away." The right is dominated by the trademark registered originally, "he said. Otherwise, Castrol would have to pay the administrator of the domain at least $50 thousand, estimates Mr. Gross. He also cites the example of the Chinese Alibaba Group and Holmrook Limited in 2015. Then the court decided that the latter does not have the right to use the Alibaba trademark in the Alibaba.ru domain. The domain name coincided with the company name, and the plaintiff did not give permission for its use.