Writing in World Trademark Report last week, Natalia Gulyaeva and Tatiana Mrdulyash (Lovells LLP, Moscow) review the new New Part IV of Russia's Civil Code which, they say, raises trade mark concerns. Part IV replaces all Russian IP laws including the Law on Trade Marks (1992/3520-1) and makes two major changes. First, the existence of a domain name identical to a trade mark is a ground for refusing to register the mark and for revoking a registered trade mark if the domain name has an earlier priority. Secondly, a trade mark licensee's goods or services must be of at least an equivalent quality to the licensor's goods or services and the licensor has the right to check that this requirement is met: the licensee and licensor will be jointly and severally liable to consumers if the quality is lower.