Aequo has represented Forbes Media on a number of issues related to its American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration proceeding against United Media Holding N.V. (UMH), Forbes’ former licensee in Ukraine, regarding the termination of its license agreement.
The dispute was administered by the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) under the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules. According to Aequo, in April 2016, the arbitral tribunal rendered a final award in Forbes’ favor, acknowledging the company's right to terminate the license agreement with UMH. The award was based on UMH’s censorship and interference with independent journalistic principles.
Aequo describes the proceeding as unique, "in that it ruled on issues related to UMH’s failure to preserve the integrity and editorial independence of Forbes Ukraine or protect the trademark."
Finally, Aequo reports, "according to the Arbitral Award, Forbes acted reasonably when it terminated the UMH license agreement. The Arbitral Award also prohibits UMH and its affiliates from using Forbes’ trademarks in any manner, including in connection with publishing a magazine in Ukraine and maintaining the corresponding website. All UMH claims against Forbes were dismissed."
Aequo also successfully represented Forbes in Ukrainian court in a dispute against UMH PH’s over use of the Forbes.ua domain name. UMH Publishing House (UMH PH), a subsidiary of UMH, had initiated the proceedings, claiming access to the forbes.ua domain name. According to Aequo, "UMH PH engaged a technical defendant to unlawfully arrange a remote venue for the litigation. However, Forbes had not been properly summoned until the first instance court decision was enforced."
Aequo’s IP team filed an appeal on behalf of Forbes and represented the company before the Court of Appeals, where it succeeded in having the lower court's decision cancelled and having UMH PH’s claims related to the forbes.ua domain name dismissed, "since the first instance court’s decision clearly affected the trademark rights of Forbes and the matter had been considered in an improper venue."
The core Aequo team representing Forbes in the AAA arbitration included Partners Anna Babych and Oleksandr Mamunya, Counsel Pavlo Byelousov, and Senior Associate Nataliya Dryuk.
Partner Oleksandr Mamunya and Senior Associates Nataliya Dryuk and Andrey Nikolayenko represented Forbes LLC in the Ukrainian Court of Appeals.
