The Moscow Court dismisses Philip Morris Brands Sarl’s trademark case against Armenian Grand Tobacco
The Moscow City Arbitration Court has confirmed it’s rejected a bid by tobacco company Philip Morris Brands Sarl, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, to sue the Armenian Grand Tobacco over “confusing similarity of packaging” between its product with a trademark Marlboro and Ararat produced by the Armenian company.
Russian “Komsomolskaya Pravda” newspaper reports that Philip Morris Brands Sarl, the owner of the Marlboro brand, filed a lawsuit in 2016, arguing the packaging design of Grand Tobacco’s Ararat impinges on their trademark intellectual property due to ‘confusing similarity’ of the products. The tobacco giant has asked for removing the Armenian product from circulation, imposing sale restrictions along with a compensation of 5 million Russian rubles.
The source reminds, that the trademark dispute between the two companies is not new with long record of court rulings issued at different times in Lebanon, Taiwan, Kuwait and UAE, with all the mentioned cases crowned with Grand Tobacco restored intellectual property rights.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia has been involved in the court as a third party communicating its official position saying no confusing similarity between Marlboro and Ararat packaging existed, as claimed by the suing side.
In its ruling the tribunal has dismissed as baseless the argument that Grand Tobacco had the intention to deliberately confuse the buyers. The court had examined and found that the unique “rooftop" trade dress and other elements of Marlboro's branding has no confusing similarity with Ararat packaging, specifically the image of the mountain depicted on Ararat brand.
Lawyer at Grand Tobacco Nikolay Hakobyan has told the paper the Philip Morris Brands Sarl has tried to artificially hamper the sale of Grand Tobacco products in the Russian market, as evidenced by the statements of the company representative, claiming the sale volumes of Marlboro product have dramatically decreased along with Grand Tobacco’s entering the Russian market.
Newsfeed
Videos
Artur Vanetsyan: I think you'll see me more often at various events in future
