Russia has taken the astonishing step to sanction Peppa Pig and Daddy Pig, in retaliation for British sanctions regarding the Ukrainian invasion.
The scarcely-believable move came as a court ruled that trademarks for the world-famous characters could be flouted in retaliation for British sanctions against Moscow.
The ruling came from Judge Andrei Slavinsky in a provincial arbitration court in Kirov, a city in western Russia.
The move is seen as the first step in paving the way for the mass abuse of Western trademarks and copyrights.
Slavinsky claimed that “restrictive” political and economic sanctions from the West allowed the court to refuse infringement claims brought forward by Entertainment One UK Ltd.
The court ruling links the Peppa Pig and Daddy Pig infringement claim to "unfriendly actions of the United States of America and affiliated foreign countries”, according to legal documents from the Kirov case.
Sanctions against Russia allow the court not to protect the UK company’s trademark rights, said the judge amid suspicion the case has been seized on by the authorities in Moscow as a weapon against Western sanctions.
Entertainment One's case in sleepy Kirov - 595 miles northeast of Moscow - had claimed an "abuse of right”.
The obscure case was brought against Ivan Kozhevnikov, an entrepreneur, to protect trademark rights for drawings of the beloved children's cartoon characters.
At the hearing, the judge appeared well-versed in the nuances of the latest sanctions developments.
The British company can appeal the bizarre ruling against its claim for around £400 in compensation for unlawful copying of its images.
By the time the case was heard, the value of the claim had sunk to £230 due to the plummeting of Putin’s rouble currency caused by the war in Ukraine.
The ruling is seen as revenge for Western patent authorities severing their ties with Russia due to the Ukrainian crisis.
The company had previously enjoyed success in Russia over its claims.
The Kirov case is one of multiple Peppa and Daddy Pig infringement cases filed in Russia from Britain including several in Siberia.
The Russians could have been aware of Boris Johnson ’s admiration for Peppa Pig after his bizarre November speech to the Confederation of British Industry.
Referring to a theme park in Hampshire, he told surprised business executives: "Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World…
“I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place: it has very safe streets, discipline in schools.”
He went on, after losing his place in his speech: "Who would have believed that a pig that looks like a hairdryer or possibly a Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC, would now be exported to 180 countries with theme parks both in America and China?”
The ruling could trigger more widespread abuse of trademarks as was common in Russia in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
