Opponents in spirited battle await legal decision
The appellate court in Warsaw is set to rule May 12 on a dispute between food, beverage and spirit exporter Agros Holding and liquor producers Polmos about the right to export Polish vodka, the Polmos companies said. But market observers said the conflict might not be over so soon as too much is at stake.
The trademark battle between the 25 Polmos companies and Agros began in 1991. The companies that now go under the name Polmos lost the right to trademark and export their products 50 years ago along with all other producers when the state set up foreign trading companies such as Agros, which were solely authorized to export Polish products.
"Liquor producers were deprived of their trademarks in 1951," said Henryk Tomasik, director of Polmos Warszawa. "And now the trademarks should come back to us."
The Polmos companies need the trademarks to sell their products abroad on their own, something that is not possible now because Agros has registered most of them abroad as its own. According to Tomasik, it is ridiculous that a producer cannot export its products.
"We want a conciliatory solution," said Lidia Kulesza, marketing director at Agros. "We want Agros to possess the Wyborowa and Zubrowka trademarks." Agros would then have the right to register both vodka trademarks abroad, while the Polmos companies would own the remaining brands. Agros' proposal has not been accepted as of yet, but the offer is still current, Kulesza said.
The two trademarks are especially important for the company because "Wyborowa and Zubrowka are our international brands," Kulesza said, adding that Agros has "over 80 trademarks worldwide in total."
Agros exports Wyborowa and Zubrowka to 75 countries as well as at duty-free points of sale. In 1999, Agros exported 4.5 million liters of Wyborowa; that same year, Wyborowa was the No. 1 imported vodka in Italy, Switzerland and Austria. According to Kulesza, Wyborowa makes up 73% of Agros' vodka exports and Zubrowka, 22%.
Market observers said that if the appellate court rules for the Polmos companies, Agros would most likely file a constitutional complaint. If Polmos loses in the May ruling, the producers can appeal to the supreme appellate court.
But a decision won't necessarily put an end to the dispute. "This case has already lasted nine years," Tomasik said. "It could take (another) two or 10 years."
Prolonging the case is especially risky for Agros, since Parliament is currently working on a draft of an industrial property law that deals with trademarks and if passed would replace the existing law. In April, a senate committee proposed a draft amendment, which states that all foreign trade companies or their legal heirs, such as Agros, must transfer property rights to the producer that has been producing a product for at least 10 years. The proposal was passed by the Senate and is now in Parliament, which is due to vote on it by mid-May.
Some lawyers say the draft amendment is unreasonable. "I don't understand this," said Pawel Czechowski, member of the Committee for European Integration. "The trademark is being taken away without any compensation despite the fact that it has already been sold." Trademarks, the company's intangible assets, were sold together with Agros shares when the holding was listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 1994. "The Treasury Ministry is not allowed to act like that," Czechowski said. "It could have done this (only) when it was the owner (of Agros)."
