ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OFFERS A NEW BRAND TO THE ARMENIAN BRANDY WHICH WILL EXPRESS ITS ESSENCE

Arminfo
2010-05-20 15:48:00

ArmInfo. The Armenian government offers a new brand ‘Arbun’ to the
Armenian brandy, Deputy agriculture Minister Samvel Galstyan said at
today’s sitting of the government.

He also added such decision is conditioned by the necessity of
difference of the Armenian brandy made of local grape from the brandy
made of the imported grape spirit (in a volume up to 40%). The new
brand will be called ‘Arbun’ from the Armenian verb ‘harbel’ which
means to go to the head. As Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan said,
the new brand may come into general use in time, though it may sound
unusual at the beginning.

Such decision was adopted to simplify the procedure of brandy export.

According to Lisbon Agreement on preserving geographical names of the
origin and their international registration, such names like brandy,
bordeaux and others wereregistered as the names of the product which
they are made of; and similar drinks produced in other countries
cannot be sold in the member-states of the Agreement under the same
or similar names like ‘Armenian brandy’.

In addition, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
instructs the WTO members to work out legal mechanisms ruling out
geographical names as brands (for the products produced in the given
territory). Thus, at present the beverage under the brand "Armenian
brandy" may be exported only to several WTO countries, including
several CIS countries, as well as the USA, where the word "Armenian"
is considered enough for correct identification. The export of the
product named "brandy" to other countries is connected with big risks.

"At any moment the Russian Federation, which is considered to the
traditional and main consumer of the Armenian brandy may join the
given agreements, and the rest of WTO countries may stiffen the
requirements to protection of geographical names",- says the decision
of the government. This conditions the necessity of a new brand. When
selecting the names, the roots of ancient and new Armenian words
(including west- and east-Armenian) were considered, for instance "arb"
(with the meaning of "heady"), "gin" (wine). Finally, the word "Arbun"
was selected. The potential brands were considered with participation
of the State Language Inspection, as well as governmental departments,
public and scientific organizations and brandy producers.