Sayenko Kharenko has successfully defended the interests of NEMIROFF from unfair competition

On 2 April 2020, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) examined the complaint filed by Sayenko Kharenko in the interests of LVN LIMITED LLC (NEMIROFF) regarding the unlawful use of goods packaging, other designations of “Zbarazkyi Horilchanyi Zavod” LLC without permission from the company. Having considered the complaint, the AMCU made mandatory recommendations to the Zbarazkyi Horilchanyi Zavod to stop the violation under Art. 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection from Unfair Competition”.

Zbarazkyi Horilchanyi Zavod was producing and selling alcoholic beverages of TM “ZBARAZH”, which in appearance resembled the vodka products of TM “NEMIROFF”, namely in general composition and style, colour scheme (background, colour of inscriptions), placement of the main inscriptions and individual elements.

Despite the complexity of the case, the Sayenko Kharenko intellectual property practice team gathered enough evidence and arguments to support the client’s position.

As a result, the AMCU came to the conclusion that the use of a similar external design of alcoholic beverages by Zbarazkyi Horilchanyi Zavod without the permission of the applicant, who had begun to use it earlier, contains signs of violation provided for in Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection from Unfair Competition”.

Sayenko Kharenko lawyers also drew the AMCU’s attention to the use of the “Organic” labels on its products by the Zbarazkyi Horilchanyi Zavod, which violates Art. 15-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection from Unfair Competition” in this case, namely, the dissemination of misleading information.

Thus, thanks to the efforts of the intellectual property practice team, it was possible to prevent and terminate unfair competition with respect to the client.

Thanks to the prompt response of Sayenko Kharenko lawyers, the examination of the case took less than 5 months, which is faster than usually takes a lawsuit, despite the workload of the AMCU.

Senior associate Maksym Medvid, associates Petro Shpakovich and Pavlo Kovalchuk worked on the project under the coordination of practice partner Yaroslav Ognevyuk.

To see the recommendations of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine please follow the link.