CONSIDERATION OF CLAIM AGAINST ARMENTEL POSTPONED
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 25 2007
YEREVAN, September 25. /ARKA/. The consideration of a claim lodged by
the Bi Line IT-Company against the ArmenTel telecommunication company
has been postponed until November 7.
The decision was made by Judge of the RA Economic Court Artak
Barseghyan. He explained that the one of the respondents, Russian
VympelCom, owner of the ArmenTel Company, was not been notified of
the judicial proceedings.
President of the Armenian Bi Line Company Hayk Hanjyan insisted that
VympelCom representatives be summoned despite the judge’s statement
that ArmenTel and VympelCom were actually represented by one person.
At the claimant’s suggestion, the notification of the judicial
proceedings was posted to the Moscow-based VympelCom headquarters.
The representative of the ArmenTel Company, lawyer Liana Geordanyan
agreed with the claimant’s demand.
"Since this is a long-lasting process, the court sitting is being
adjourned until November 7, 2007," Judge Barseghyan said.
The reason for the Armenian Bi-Line Company’s claim is VympelCom’s
intention to implement a re-branding program at ArmenTel and rename
it BeeLine-Armenia. The problem is that, in Armenian and Russian,
the name of the Armenian Bi Line IT-Company sounds similar o that
of the Russian BeeLine brand. To settle the problem the companies
conducted negotiations, which did not produce any results.
It is for the first time that Russian mobile communication operators
have encountered such a problem in entering the market of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russian lawyers believe that
VympelCom has a small chance to get its brand registered in Armenia.
Andrey Stas, Managing Partner of the Russian Stas Marketing Partners,
believes that the owners of the Armenian Bi Line brand can demand
5%-10% of the proceeds from VympelCom for using the brand in Armenia.
The Russian Iks-Consulting estimates ArmenTel’s proceeds from mobile
communication services at $90mln in 2006. Thus, the use of the brand
in Armenia will cost $2.5-$9mln.
The VympelCom public corporation with its BeeLine brand is a
transnational company operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Georgia. It has a total of 54,000,000
clients. The principal stockholders of the company are Alpha Group
(Russia) and Telenor (Norway). VympelCom shares have been listed on
the NY Stock Exchange for ten years.
Last November the company purchased the ArmenTel Company.