TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT FINE IMPOSED ON ARMENIAN MP SAMVEL ALEXANYAN’S COMPANY

Tert
Nov 5 2009
Armenia

The Republic of Armenia State Commission for the Protection of
Economic Competition held their regular meeting today. The commission
commenced legal proceedings on Alex Grig LLC for unfair competition
based on an application submitted by Manukyan and Partners Ltd., which
represents the interests of several Russian companies in Armenia who
produce vodka.

The Commission maintained that trademark infringement had taken
place: Alex Grig used a trademark which was practically identical or
confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party in relation
to the sale of products which are identical or similar to products
sold by the other company (in this case, the product is vodka and
the other company is Manukyan and Partners Ltd.).

The trademark covers such names as Parliament, Russian Brilliant,
Slavyanskaya: Russian companies that have registered their brands
in Armenia.

Characterizing the company’s actions as being not in good faith,
the Commission imposed a fine of 500,000 AMD for each case (1,500,000
AMD in total), which must be paid within ten days. In addition, the
company must stop producing these products and within a month it must
remove them from the marketplace.

Alex Grig LLC is one of Armenia’s major producers of vodka and is
owned by notable Armenian oligarch, MP Samvel Aleksanyan.