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Eastern Europe
May 19, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
But Joris van Manen, a lawyer from Hoyng Monegier handling the case on behalf of the Russian state-holding FKP, accuses SPI of trying to “politicise” the dispute. “The Dutch courts did not pay attention to these political arguments and confirmed, up and until the Dutch Supreme Court, in various thorough and well-founded judgments that FKP is the legal owner of the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya trademarks,”
van Manen tells bne IntelliNews.
The Dutch court deferred final judgement in the case on May 17. While the court found the com- pany was not legally transformed from a state- owned entity to a private one in 1991-1992, it
had yet to decide which party currenty owns the trademarks. “A number of questions still [have] to be answered,” the Dutch court said on its website, noting that, “One of [the] issues is the alleged protection of Spirits as assignee in good faith”.
The court said both parties must make state-
Bondholders of Ukraine's PrivatBank challenge bail-in in London court
bne IntelliNews
Eurobond holders of Ukraine's biggest state lender PrivatBank have filed a lawsuit in the Lon- don Court of International Arbitration challenging the bail-in for their securities during the bank's nationalisation, the Suprema Lex law firm that is advising the noteholders said on May 18.
“On behalf of some noteholders we have initiated a lawsuit regarding violation of their rights during
ments on the remaining issues as well as the con- tents of the applicable laws of the 13 countries, after which these issues will be heard in court. After that has taken place, the court will deliver its next judgment.
Much is at stake for SPI. In the 13 EU and non- EU jurisdictions in question, the group says it has sales of 4mn-5mn bottles per year. Pending the outcome of the decision, the group doesn’t sell vodka in the Benelux region, but claims to have lost sales amounting to more than 400,000 bottles.
“The impact of the Netherlands making new laws for 13 different countries in respect of their national intellectual property would be danger- ous,” says Ribbert. “The procedural hurdle for us is high because there is a judgement out there already – which we are fighting to overturn –
and it may influence this other court in their
own decisions.”
the bail-in for PrivatBank’s notes in the interna- tional arbitration institute,” Interfax news agency quoted Viktor Moroz, managing partner of Su- prema Lex, as saying. “The proceedings are at the stage of approving the arbitration procedure and selecting arbiters.”
In December, the Ukrainian government an- nounced the nationalisation of PrivatBank after it