Interesting fact from the latest Patent Office Bulletin (BUP). The owner of the MIR brand, the Russian payment card system (National Payment Card System), has registered its trademark on the Polish market. The entry in the BUP shows that the name MIR can be used in Poland, among others in the context of issuing debit and credit cards, card services, money transfers and many other financial, banking and money services.

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MIR is a Russian payment organization, competing on the local market with such giants as Mastercard or Visa. The MIR was created after international institutions introduced sanctions following the annexation of Crimea by Russia. MIR cooperates with the Chinese organization UnionPay and declared its international aspirations a few months ago. For example, in April last year it started working with one of the Turkish banks. The aim of this cooperation was to be, among others start of creating a card acceptance network with the MIR logo in Turkey.

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Registration of a trademark at the Patent Office, of course, does not mean that the Russian MIR will immediately enter Poland. This fact, however, indicates that the Polish market is not indifferent to the Russians. If MIR cards were to appear in Poland, there would first have to be an acceptance network, so terminal operators would have to start accepting payments with new plastics, e.g. used by Russian tourists. Only later could one think of card issuing, provided, of course, that there was a bank or fintech interested in issuing them and customers - to use.