MOSCOW, May 4 - RAPSI. The Supreme Commercial Court has registered Elitvoda.Ru's petition to review the court's ruling charging it $6,800 in damages to Heineken Ceska republika brewery for infringing its Krusovice trademark exclusive rights.
On April 16 the Moscow District Federal Commercial Court upheld the appellate court's judgment in favor of Heineken Ceska republika.
On December 12, 2011 the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals ruled for Heineken Ceska republika to recover the 200,000 rubles ($6,800) from Elitvoda.Ru. The appeal court overrode the Moscow Commercial Court's September 20, 2011 ruling against the Heineken subsidiary's 400,000 ruble ($13,600) lawsuit.
The trial court stated that Elitvoda.Ru had imported a shipment of "Krusovice Imperial," "Krusovice Musketur" and "Krusovice Сеrne" beer into Russia without obtaining the trademark owner's consent.
In a previous statement, Heineken Ceska republika's lawyer Vladimir Dmitriyev said that under Russian law only trademark owners are authorized to import trademarked goods listed in the Customs IP Registry. Otherwise, the customs office must arrest the shipment.
The Heineken subsidiary told the court that the beer imported by Elitvoda.Ru is original, but that it had never allowed the defendant to import it into Russia.
Heineken is a Dutch brewery founded in 1863. Its subsidiaries in Russia include Heineken Brewery, St. Petersburg's Stepan Razin Brewery and as well as other companies.
The Russian Legal Information Agency has yet to obtain comments from Elitvoda.Ru.
