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22 November 2017

Stolichanaya Ownership Battle Continues

Submitted by: Nik Koster

The battle over the ownership of international vodka brand, Stolichnaya continues with more court dates set over the coming months.


Stolichnaya is currently owned by exiled Russian, Yuri Shefler and his company Spirits International following a purchase of forty-two other brands for USD $300,000 in the nineties. 


Soyuzplodoimport (translated: Union Fruit Import), who previously owned the Stoliochnaya trademark, has been backed by Russian President for the past five years with a campaign to retrieve a number of Russia’s key vodka brands, which were sold off during Russia’s privatization of state assets over twenty years ago.


Soyuzplodoimport claim the purchase of the multi-million brand was ‘unlawful’, so far they have retrieved ownership in their home country of Russia alongside the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The ownership battle continues across Europe with  thirteen more countries in contention with a ruling soon to be announced.

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