Afisha.ru attempts to stop competitors from using 'afisha' in advertising

The publishing house Afisha Industries attempted to legally stop Film.ru website from showing advertisements related to the search results for the word 'afisha'('playbill'). The company considers such use of the word 'afisha' unacceptable, since Film.ru and Afisha.ru are rival websites. Representatives of Entertime, which owns Film.ru, consider the claims of the publishing house to be unfounded, stating that the word "afisha" originated in the Russian language much sooner than the relevant trademark was registered. It is noteworthy that there is no publication called 'Afisha'. There is the website Afisha.ru and a magazine entitled Afisha. All Entertainments of Moscow". At the same time, Russian laws do not impose any restrictions on the way ads are selected in contextual advertising, but only regulate the use of proprietary brand names in the context of advertisements.