Stolichnaya belongs to Russian State

Moscow 15 june 2006.

The Russian State is the owner of the trademarks Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya. This has been decided by the District Court at Rotterdam in a judgement that became public today.

The thorough 23 page judgement has been rendered in a long lasting court battle between the Russian state company FKP Soyuzplodoimport and Spirits International N.V. of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which is licensing the sale of Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka world wide. 

According to the court Spirits is not the rightful owner of the trademarks in the Benelux. Spirits had argued that it had acquired the trademarks in the 1990's from the Russian state company which originally owned the trademark registrations after the company had been "privatized". The court has ruled that no valid privatisation of the state company has taken place and that the marks have thus remained with the Russian State.

According to the court Spirits and its director, Yuri Shefler, knew or should have known about this fact. Also, the available documents about the "privatization" should have cast doubts about the validity thereof. Furthermore, the alleged privatization took place in the "chaotic" period when the U.S.S.R fell apart and many State assets were sold out. Moreover, according to the court, the purchase price for the world wide portfolio of trademarks was much lower than the actual value of the trademarks. Shefler and Spirits therefore acted in bad faith when acquiring the trademarks.

The court also ruled that Spirits subsequently registered further Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya trademarks world wide in bad faith. The court holds that Russia can nullify those registrations and can prohibit the use of those marks by Spirits. Russia is therefore entitled to prohibit the sale Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka in the Benelux.

Finally, the court has ruled that Spirits is not allowed to use the words "Russian Vodka" or "Made in Russia" on its bottles. According to the court this denomination is misleading as the product is not manufactured in Russia.

FKP Soyuzplodoimport director, Mr Loginov is delighted with the judgement: "Today justice has been done by the Dutch court. This is an important step in the recovery of Russian assets world wide. I am very optimistic about the future in this file."

Already in three earlier occasions the courts in Moscow, including the supreme court of arbitration have ruled that the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya trademarks belong to the Russian State. In recent years FKP Soyuzplodoimport has won three other court cases about wodka brands against Spirits before the district court and court of appeal in The Hague, the Netherlands.