Initial details of a license violation were announced to the English-speaking wiki in May 2019.^[32] Duksin by that time had acquired the approval for the trademark, and used it to enforce legal sanctions on minor market competitors. At that time, the conflict was approached with diplomatic solutions. Calls for the creation of a GoFundMe by the fanbase were dismissed by staff as unnecessary, writing “nothing here is a cause for panic”. A cease and desist letter was sent to Duksin as an attempted pre-judicial remedy.

Duksin’s response has been inconsistent over time. Initially, Duksin stated that the application for the trademark and its enforcement was a mistake.^[33] Next, he explained on his ARTSCP project’s social media page that it was necessary for higher-production-value projects.^[34] After this justification was deemed insufficient by the community, and in response to backlash, Duksin publicly stated that he was going to revoke the trademark in a video.^[35][36](The video has been archived and can be seen in the original Russian here.) Next, Duksin claimed “that Some of the rights to the trademark have been transferred to ‘filmmakers’, so the trademark cannot be canceled ‘without sanctions’ in relation to Andrei – this is what Andrei told our lawyer in a telephone conversation when he was asked to settle everything out of court”.^[37] Then, Andrey announced that the film team and investors had withdrawn their funding for the movie project, which was to be the main product to come from the trademark.^[38][39] Finally, when the trademark was still active and not recanted, Duksin told the community that the cancellation was suspended, and that the community deserved to see the end-result of the high-production project underway.^[37] After community pushback, Duksin removed the locks from the seller who was the first known to be blocked by the trademark; this store remains open and functional as of the time of writing.^[40]

Andrei Duksin, in a screencapped frame from a now deleted video, where he announces he will recant the trademark.

Some time after, Duksin resumed his extortion and used the trademark’s legal brunt to shut down more competitors in the name of “The SCP Foundation Team”,^[41][42] as well as two VK groups: the official VK page for the Russian branch of the SCP Wiki,^[43] and a VK SCP meme community.^[44][45] The staff who ran the official SCP Foundation VK page took refuge in another fan-made VK page, “SCPFanPage”, which changed its name to “#StandwithSCPRU”, and became a pseudo-official platform for statements and updates.^[46]

Over time, Duksin’s tone shifted from a circumspect cooperator to a hostile aggressor.^[37][47] He also stated explicitly that he intends to take over the -RU branch of the SCP Wiki.^[48][49] SCP-EN and the greater international communities were made aware of this in an emergency announcement by -EN staff in November 2019.^[6] -RU updated an official statement alongside this,^[50] and the international communities released an official joint statement at this time.^[51]

In March 2020, A Russian law firm announced via its social media that it was taking the case against Duksin for the SCP International community.^[59] As of writing, this announcement has been viewed over 10,000 times.^[60]

Outcomes

On November 11, 2020 — close to 1 year after the initial emergency announcement — it was stated to the public on the social media of SCP’s legal team that the final appearance to challenge the SCP Trademark was concluded. The outcome was as follows:

During the consideration of the case, the federal antimonopoly body officially established the following significant facts:

1) the designation “The SCP Foundation was developed and created not by Mr. Duksin, but by third parties;

2) Mr. Duksin did not order the development of this designation from these persons;

3) these persons developed, created and used this designation not for subsequent transfer to Mr. Duksin.”

The OFAS Commission also pointed out that the actions of Mr. Duksin (attempts to close publics and websites selling souvenir products on the subject of the Fund) may be an independent act of unfair competition and lead to an unjustified monopoly on the use of this designation by him in relation to goods, works or services for which trademark legal protection does not apply.

The commission itself did not recognize the acquisition of the right to a trademark as a fact of unfair competition… Nevertheless, we have achieved recognition that, if not the acquisition, then at least the use of the trademark by Mr. Duxin in the fight against the so-called “competitors” was illegal. It is very important.

We will continue to provide legal assistance to the administration of the Fund within the framework of the assumed obligations. The proceedings at the FAS are over, but this, obviously, is not the last stage of the work.

Thus the result of the initial trial was that Duksin would keep the trademark, pending further legal pursuit.^[52]

The Russian-speaking SCP fandom’s reception to the lawyer’s update post was mixed:

Show More

[To the lawyer on his VK account] Just say, “we fucked up.” There was no need to trust you to protect the interests of the STSP. And now everything is fucked up. Duskin won and fas admits it

---

Andrey, on the contrary, I was expecting exactly this. The fact that the Federal Antimonopoly Service has no competence in intellectual property follows almost from the name. There is another organ for this.

---

Andrey, state the body recognized that you violated the law, and that the sign was not you invented, but the facts established by the state. authorities are usually accepted by the courts without additional evidence. The show is just beginning.

---

Mr. Duksin, the road has been paved with good intentions and you know where, for the future, a little advice. If you decide to take the initiative – consult with the community, with the Fund administrators, after all, and do not use the imperfection of the copyright apparatus in the Russian Federation to put pressure on third-party publics, extortion of a percentage of income and give out your community (the arts are certainly beautiful, and the figures are not bad, mine homage) for the official SCP community, when it existed and still exists today. Because from our side it only looks like parasitism on the Foundation universe for the sake of money, and nothing else, I say this, having comprehensively studied the problem. Don’t be mean, have a nice day

---

Andrey, 1) to block everyone and everything is NOT the development of the universe 2) appropriation of the signs of the fund and everything connected with it is NOT the development of the universe, and is NOT legal. 3) you personally did NOTHING for the development of the universe. To popularize it a little – I copied articles from the site and other people’s (yes, under a free license) pictures and sold it all in a high-quality cover. Everything. 4) I repeat, appropriation of what is distributed under a free license is NOT legal 5) sat like a dog on hay, on a trademark, and prevent everyone from living in a row 6) Suck your ass

---

Andrey, I don’t even know who to be for …

On the one hand, you really did not act according to your conscience and privatized the sign, which is distributed according to the principle of the public domain, you did it on communities and websites … well, you know what you did …

On the other hand, the registration of the mark is recognized as legal, which means that your conscience is clear (although this is a hole in the laws of the Russian Federation, you yourself have not violated anything). And since you are the owner of the mark, then you have the right to demand interest for it …

Emotions exceed the rules, because all the people took up arms against you, so also a foreign fund, which, even if its arms are not long, but if they grab it …

In general, I will remain an independent observer who wants to see a solid foundation in strong, reliable and, most importantly, honest hands. Perhaps they will be you, perhaps they will be the foundation itself. Good luck Mr. D. Good luck, SCP Foundation

---

Denis, the Foundation should obviously not be ruled by a person for whom the main interest is not aesthetic, but material.

---

everything is bad, you guys fucked up

^[53]

In an update to the GoFundMe in November 2021, SCP Wiki representation wrote:^[3]https://www.gofundme.com/f/scp-legal-funds

“Hello, everyone!

We’ve got some news. It’s not good, but it’s not terrible either.

On appeal, the previous court’s ruling was upheld by the Intellectual Property Court. As a reminder, the previous court ruled:

1. The SCP Foundation name and logo were created by parties other than Duksin.
2. Duksin did not commission their creation.
3. The parties which created the SCP Foundation name and logo did not transfer their rights to Duksin nor did they ever intend to do so.
4. The actions taken by Duksin may be an act of unfair competition in and of themselves, and could lead to an illegitimate monopoly due to using said trademark towards wares, works, and services not protected by said trademark.

However, the IPC has left Duksin’s trademark intact, and they have chosen not to address this issue.

The case is far from finished, though; we are planning on appealing the decision to the next court up, the Intellectual Property Court Presidium, to challenge the ruling. Hopefully we will not need to appeal again, but we will continue trying regardless until we have a definitive ruling protecting SCP for all content creators, or all legal options are exhausted.

We will continue to update you as the case unfolds.”

The lawsuit was first filed with the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (of St. Petersburg), and taken before a commercial court of first instance. The lawsuit was slow moving, in part because there is no discovery system in Russia (all evidence must be collated and presented prior to the lawsuit and court date), but also due to the COVID-19 virus.^[1][56]

The SCP legal team prepared to appeal the decision with competent appellate courts, and perhaps even the Russian Intellectual Property court if needed. While the outcome was not as hoped, the official declaration of the trademark as invalid was hoped to serve the prosecution in the next round(s) of litigation.

In March 2023, the pseudo-official VK of the SCP Wiki’s Russian branch released an update:^[4]https://web.archive.org/web/20230407173525/https://m.vk.com/@scpfanpage-rezume-po-konfliktu-s-andreem-duksinym

Notes on Russian Legal System, Proceedings

It should be noted that Russian intellectual property laws are notoriously difficult to navigate, particularly for oversees entities,^[54] and often result in applications of trademarks to improper persons or entities.^[55] Much of this is due to lax standards, bribery, Russia’s first-to-file policy of trademark issuance, and the lack of recognition for foreign national trademark registrations in Russia.^[56] Other notable instances of inappropriate trademark conflicts include Microsoft, Minecraft, the Suzuki Corporation, and even cases which the Russian state suffers for, such as STOLICHNAYA vodka.^[57][58][54]

• • appellate courts review existing evidence, as well as any new evidence if there is a legitimate reason for not submitting it at first instance;
  • the Russian Intellecutal Property Court, acting as the first cassation appeal court, hears cases on the existing case records, but does not re-evaluate the evidence or facts;
  • the Economic Board of the Russian Supreme Court, acting as the second cassation appeal court, also has no power to re-evaluate evidence and facts; and
  • the Russian Supreme Court, in supervision appeals, may review a case and ascertain whether there is a substantial breach in law enforcement.^[56]

SCP intended to invalidate the trademark on the relative grounds of prior rights. Given that no ruling had overturned Duksin’s trademarking of the SCP Foundation logo after the initial commercial trial, he stood to be the lawful holder ten years from the date of the issuance.^[56] If Duksin’s trademarking was overruled and overturned, Duksin would possibly be subject to an administrative fines, the discrediting of his brand, the submission to a published court order, possible confiscation of his company and products, and likely subsequent cases from competing entrepreneurs with legal recourse who are seeking monetary relief.

Misunderstandings and Misinformation

• • While Duksin is hoping to secure a sinecure position for himself as Administer of the SCP-RU Branch, and would likely use the platform to advertise his merchandise, his doing so would not be new; the Main Page of the -RU branch featured and advertised Duksin’s products, including the calendar and artbooks, from 2015-2019, with a dedicated div box on the left-hand menu, and with -RU Administration’s endorsement.

• The SCP Foundation logo trademark does not apply to countries outside the ECU.^{[61][62][63][64]} There is no possibility that branches other than -RU are at risk of any take-over, shut-down, or mitigation from Duksin’s trademark. The source of this misinformation is likely the conflicting accounts and statements from SCP-EN staff themselves.^[65][66] (See “Various Media” section for screencaps of conflicting statements from SCP staff members; these are in the dedicated images as well as the fliers.)

However, the holder of a trademark in Russia can apply to have it reviewed for other member countries that participate in various trans-continental IP agreements, such as the Madrid Agreement, though the results of these agreements are procedural rather than substantive. There are international entities for globalizing trademarks like the Madrid System, Nice Agreement, and the Trademark Law Treaty, which Russia is a part of, but they are all designed to make legit trademarking internationally more streamlined and economically convenient; not automatic, and certainly not guaranteed.

An international application must be filed by the owner, specifying the countries in which it wants to apply its trademark, with non-trivial fees applying per member country.^[54] Two severe, manual review cases follow — one through the global governing bodies overseeing those agreements and systems, and again for the specific review boards in each country the trademark holder is hoping to get a trademark applied to — in addition to paying the equivalent of $2,600 per country for the process. It is not certain that the trademark would be recognized by other countries, and this may be further made difficult for an individual from Russia seeking to expand their legal standing, due to the known idiosyncrasies of Russian IP law. A trademark which has completed or begun this process of applying in other member countries is tagged with an international qualifier (e.g. pending, rejected, approved) on the documentation.^[67]

• The initial court technically ruled in favor of SCP, however there was no enforcement of the findings, or recognition of the extortion on the part of Duksin.
• Duksin is not suing SCP-RU. Representatives of the international branches of the SCP Wiki, primarily members of the English branch, are suing Duksin, who is the defendant.

Trivia

An SCP ASMR YouTube channel provided a synopsis of the situation in June 2022.^[8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVmbgrTExlk

Duksin sold the illustration rights from ARTSCP books to ParaBooks, previously Paranormal Activity Books, in 2021. While the initial Russian publisher, KOMILFO, stated they would cease publication of the art books in 2021, ParaBooks is the US subsidiary of the company, and so is still publishing them; now out-of-contract with Duksin.^[9]https://www.gofundme.com/f/scp-legal-funds, Update March 27, 2021^[10]https://archive.ph/r8xA2#selection-2895.0-2903.409

In a Q&A session on the SCP Wiki, a representative stated “… the worst case scenario is that scp-ru has to move to a new website where users would then have to congregate.”^[11]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-12800526/announcement-regarding-licensing-emergency#post-4449806 This exact outcome occurred during the WikiDot Blackout of 2022.

Of the $164,355 raised for the SCP Wiki’s legal defense on GoFundMe, 8% ($13,148) was utilized for the trials resulting in the removal of Duksin’s trademark. A SCP-RU announcement stated the remainder ($151,206) to be “… at the disposal of the management of the English-speaking branch that organized the collection.”^[12]https://web.archive.org/web/20230407173525/https://m.vk.com/@scpfanpage-rezume-po-konfliktu-s-andreem-duksinym

The Russian lawyers responsible for winning the case against Duksin include Svyatoslav Chusov, who provided assistance in the first years of the proceedings, and Dmitry Kozhemyakin, who brought the case to the end.^[13]https://web.archive.org/web/20230407173525/https://m.vk.com/@scpfanpage-rezume-po-konfliktu-s-andreem-duksinym