Perm stores of Lenta retail chain sued in 5 million rubles because of Italian wine

The statement of claim of LLC "Alexandrovy Pogreba" to LLC "Big Family" was received by the Arbitration Court of the Perm Region on June 13. The applicant demands to prohibit the defendant from advertising and selling wine marked with the designation "Tesoro del Mare" on the territory of the Russian Federation. In addition, the company is seeking compensation from LLC "Big Family" for violation of its exclusive rights to the trademarks "TESORO" in the amount of 5 million rubles.

Since 2021, LLC "Big Family" operates the Lenta hypermarket in the “Family” shopping mall and other large-format retailer stores that were previously part of the Perm “Family” retail chain. Previously, the "Family" sold Italian wine Tesoro del Mare as part of its project "The Right Wine". The project was launched in 2015 and provides for direct deliveries of wines from Italy, Spain, Chile, France and South Africa.

Alexandrovy Pogreba LLC registered the trademarks "TESORO " in Rospatent in 2003 and 2013. The company also has exclusive rights to the trademarks "Suerte Tesoro", "Tesoro Del Duero" and "Isla Del Tesoro".

On July 18, a preliminary court hearing on the case took place. The representative of the plaintiff filed a motion to demand evidence, namely, to request information from the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation regarding the volume of purchases and sales of Tesoro del Mare wine to consumers. The representative of the defendant did not recognize the claims and petitioned for the involvement of the wine importer, LLC "Vine Group", as a third party who does not declare independent claims. A second preliminary court hearing is scheduled for August 8.

It is worth noting that the trial with LLC "Big Family" is not the first dispute initiated by LLC "Alexandrovy Pogreba" over trademarks. Similar applications were submitted by the company to other producers and distributors of alcohol: Moscow LLC "Wine style", LLC "Premier Wine", LLC "Vainhelp", Sverdlovsk LLC "Barell" and LLC "Smart Distribution".

Patent attorney, managing partner of Zuykov and partners Sergey Zuykov explains that LLC "Big Family", like the above companies, was chosen as the defendant in the case, since it is easiest to recover the awarded compensation from the distributor. "I am sure that the Alexandrovy Pogreba company did not care that the wine was produced not by the retailer itself, but by its supplier. The fact that the Tesoro del Mare wine was removed from sale by Lenta will not greatly affect the recovery of the amount if the court decides to satisfy the plaintiff's claims — the statute of limitations is three years," Mr. Zuykov notes. However, according to him, it is quite difficult to assess the chances of Alexandrovy Pogreba LLC in a dispute with Big Family LLC, since not all the circumstances are clear. "Taking into account the fact that several signs with the word "Tesoro" are registered in Russia for different companies, it is difficult to say with confidence that the court will side with Alexandrovy Pogreba LLC. The probability of rejection of the claim is quite high, especially given the fact that Alexandrovy Pogreba has not been producing any goods lately, but mainly lives by collecting compensation for violations," says the patent attorney.

Source: Kommersant Publishing House