Registered trademarks for consumer good should not be permitted to use images of saints and other religious symbols, says the Interreligious Council of Russia. The Council met last week to discuss the issue, given that there have been many cases lately of trademarks using religious symbols that are venerated by believers, especially on alcoholic beverages, the Council reports. “The application of images or names of saints to alcoholic beverages and their use as a trademark can be regarded as an act committed in order to offend the religious sensibilities of believers and desecrate the object of veneration, including the name of the saint,” the Council states.

The image or name of a saint “cannot be the exclusive right of a physical or legal person who is not a religious organization or not established by one,” the statement continues. Thus, the state registration of such trademarks “is completely unacceptable.” The Interreligious Council includes clerical representatives of Russia’s four constitutionally-defined “traditional religions”: Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. In 2018, a Tbilisi court banned the blasphemous use of Orthodox imagery on condom packaging, although the European Court of Human Rights sided with the maker of the condoms this past July. (Quelle: www.orthochristian.com, 27. Oktober 2021)