Russia Today sues merch distributor supporting Meduza with ‘foreign agent’ clothing

Russia Today’s parent company is suing Feelosophy, a Moscow-based store that recently started selling merchandise branded with the phrase “foreign agent” (inostrannyi agent and inoagent) to raise support for Meduza. Available court records indicate that ANO TV-Novosti’s lawsuit is against Georgy Saribekyan, Feelosophy’s founder. RT’s parent company seeks 500,000 rubles (about $6,775) in damages.

A few months ago, lawyers representing RT sent Feelosophy a cease-and-desist order and demanded 500,000 rubles in compensation for supposedly violating the company’s copyright on “foreign agent” branding.

In 2018, RT started selling merchandise bearing the phrase “foreign agent,” following its registration in the United States as an agent of the Russian government. In 2020, the media company obtained the intellectual rights to the term “foreign agent.” In May 2021, RT filed another trademark application for a shortened version of the same phrase: “inoagent,” but it had yet to be approved as of November 2021.

Georgy Saribekyan has called RT’s cease-and-desist request a “political joke,” and Feelosophy has continued to release new merchandise to support Meduza.