Russian state plans to seek rights to Stolichnaya vodka trademark in U.S.
MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) - The Russian state plans action to obtain rights in the United States to the Stolichnaya and Stoli vodka trademark, according to a report on a Russian government website.
The government has drafted a directive aimed at "the transfer of rights to trademarks containing the Stolichnaya and/or Stoli verbal element in them on the territory of the United States and on all territories that are under U.S. jurisdiction to the federal state enterprise Soyuzplodoimport," according to the report, posted on the Combined Portal for the Disclosure of Information on the Drafting by Federal Bodies of Executive Government of Executive Legal Acts and Results of Public Debates on Them.
Russia would "take account of distinctions of the U.S. legal system" in pursuing its claim, the report said.
The text of the draft directive, entitled "On the Protection of the Rights of the Russian Federation to the Stolichnaya Trademark on U.S. Territory," remains unpublished.
Popular so-called "Soviet" brands of Russian vodka, including Stolichnaya, Moskovskaya, Kubanskaya and Limonnaya, have been the source of a trademark dispute since 2001 when Russia's Supreme Arbitration Court transferred those trademarks from Yury Shefler's SPI Group to the state.
Soyuzplodoimport, set up in December 2001, was given license to control the brands.
However, outside Russia, SPI and distributors still hold rights to them, and so Soyuzplodoimport has launched litigations in seeking to have rights to them given to the Russian state.
Expert estimates put Stolichnaya sales in the United States at $1 billion per year.
