Moscow, 27 November 2008 - The international law firm Baker & McKenzie succeeded in defending the rights of DENSO Corporation, a Japanese auto components manufacturer, against a Russian limited liability company, Denso, over its denso.com domain name. The matter was decided by the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitrazh [state commercial] Court of the Russian Federation.

This was the first case to be tried by the Russian commercial courts over a domain name in the .com zone where the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) applies.

The Baker & McKenzie team in Moscow included Partner Denis Khabarov and associate Anton Bankovski.

“Until now, the rules that should be applied in court actions related to domain disputes in the .com zone as well as the role of decisions passed in accordance with the UDRP and the stand of the Russian courts on such decisions were not clear,” said Denis Khabarov. “We were able to persuade the courts that such cases should not be decided in accordance with Russian law alone, but that the courts should consider broader approaches to the problem of unfair competition, as recommended by international documents."

Commented on the decision a DENSO Corporation representative said: "We are pleased with the decision of the Supreme Arbitrazh Court, and we appreciate the efforts of Baker & McKenzie’s intellectual property team to winning the case."