If any of you'll read about the Swiss company that wants a trademark for
Linux as a detergent, you'll find this hilarious:
Philip
Man! These Russians are learning fast!!!
Posted by Observer on November 05, 1999 at 09:42:48:
This article was taken from the St. Petersburg Times. Seems like a
Russian Beer company is intentionaly using Bill Gates "Windows 99"
name for its new beer. They're not worried about lawsuits. Heck,
they're hoping for that to boast the beer's popularity.
Observer
Windows '99 Beer Taps Logo for Launch
By Anna Shcherbakova
STAFF WRITER
Photo by Alexander Belenky
A small firm thumbed its nose at Bill Gates this week, launching
Windows '99 - the beer - on an unsuspecting St. Petersburg.
Without even informing Microsoft Corp. of its intentions, a struggling
local vodka company decided that the best way to boost its new beer
was to name it after the computer operating system that made Gates and
his company famous and powerful.
Andrei Solonin, general director of the Professor Solonin vodka
company said at Wednesday's launch that he expects his Windows '99
beer to make a splash on the already-crowded local beer market with
its immediately recognizable name.
He also claimed he had little to fear from Microsoft because he had
legally registered Windows as a brand name for food, drinks and
tobacco categories.
"We are not afraid [of a possible suit] from Microsoft, it will only
vitalize our advertising campaign, and you know how long the lawsuits
in Russian courts could last," Solonin said.
Solonin's marketing sleight of hand may well be litigation-proof,
legal experts said.
The move does not violate the Russian Law on Trademarks, which allows
the registration of the same trademark in different product
categories, so long as it could not confuse and delude a customer.
"There is no protection of famous trademarks in Russian legislation,"
said Yelena Zaitseva, a trademark attorney at ARS-patent firm, in a
telephone interview Thursday.
She added that well-known brands like Windows, Coca-Cola or Kodak are
protected from registration by third parties worldwide, but no such
insurance has been added to Russian trademark law. Despite its lack,
the company could be sued for violation of Antimonopoly legislation.
As a result of the peculiarities of Russian law, the use of famous
brand names and logos for products outside of their usual industry is
becoming common. A St. Petersburg food-processing company, Darya, last
month started putting up billboards of its pelmeni, or meat dumplings,
alongside doctored corporate logos of well-known foreign brands, such
as Intel.
Meanwhile, Microsoft Russia was cautious in its response to the ploy.
Trademark registration and protection are the responsibilities of the
company's European office and all official information about the new
beer will be sent there, said Gamid Kostoyev, who works at the Moscow
office of Microsoft. Any decision to take legal action will be taken
by that office, he added.
Solonin, a former psychology teacher at Gertsen Teachers College,
founded his own company, Professor So lonin, in 1996 after having
worked as a representative for a pharmaceutical concern for several
years.
Last year the firm Professor Solonin produced 1 million bottles or
500,000 liters of Professor Solonin vodka. He said he named the
company and vodka using the title of professor, which in Russian
connotes a very experienced and well-educated teacher, because it gave
an added measure of trust to customers. He admits now though that it
was a mistake selecting an absolutely unknown name because of its
marketing difficulty.
"Big money has to be invested into a brand which starts from zero," he
said. He sees a large advertising capacity in the Windows brand.
Solonin pledged to make as much mileage out of the Windows name as he
could.
"We also launched the production of non-alcoholic beverages and
mineral water and are looking forward to extending the Windows line of
products in, for example, chewing gum," he said at a news conference
on Wednesday. He is also discussing the launch of cigarettes with a
large tobacco company.
And to show his respect for the company which developed the worldwide
brand he's copying, the director is sending two bottles of his new
beer to Bill Gates. "He will receive it approximately next Monday," he
said.
Solonin said he plans to brew up to 300,000 liters of Windows beer per
month, while only a few batches of 10,000 liters each have been
manufactured and sold so far.
He declined to say though which St. Petersburg breweries produced
them, only that "most factories are under foreigners' control and
[factory] directors take those orders at their own risk."
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