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Macleans.ca

Canada’s magazine

The mysterious case of the trademarked beard

A libel suit related to a trademarked beard recently prevented a prominent Russian mathematician from travelling abroad for a conference. Mikhail Verbitsky was sued years ago by a man named I.V. Pugach after Verbitsky ridiculed Pugach’s claim to have exclusive rights to a particular facial hair design. On his blog, Verbitsky lambasted Pugach for trying to have the bearded Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho’s books taken off the shelves in Russia.