As Eurasianet's Nino Pasturia wrote last year, Georgia's efforts to break into the American wine market had been stymied by the fact that some famous Georgian wine brand names were actually trademarked to a company based in New Jersey.
It turns out the Georgian government was facing similar problems in Germany, where the trademark on three types of Georgian wines were held by a Russian company. Considering the ongoing trade battle between Georgia and Russia, which banned the import of Georgian wine in 2006 in the wake of political tensions with Tbilisi, finding out Russians held those trademarks could not have been good news for Georgian winemakers. But now it appears the Georgians have managed to gain the upper hand. From a report on the website of Georgia's Democracy & Freedom Watch:
Georgia has reclaimed three brand names of wine that had been patented in Germany by a Russian company.
The company, Moscow Wine and Spirits Company GmbH, had been selling the wine brands Tsinandali, Kindzmarauli, Khvanchkara.
Irakli Ghvaladze, head of Sakpatent, Georgia’s intellectual property agency, says these brands are of Georgian origin and have been Georgian property for centuries. In 2011 Sakpatent became aware that the Russian company had registered the brandnames with the German patent and trademark office.
Last year Georgia reclaimed the trademark of Khvanchkara from the U.S. patent office, which had granted the rights to use it to Dozortsev & Sons. According to the agreement, all rights to use the Khvanchkara trademark in the United States have been transferred to Georgia, which means that no one will have the right to import goods and sell it on the American market under this name without Georgia’s permission.
Meanwhile, in what is sure to be even more welcome news for Georgia's vintners, the country's wine industry last year had its most exports since the Russian embargo was enacted. The story, from Bloomberg, here.
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