In Russia there is famous natural spring – Essentuki. The Russian mineral water under the brand Essentuki is produced there. Only couple manufacturers can use this brand simply because they have productions in Essentuki. They manufacture bottled water and sell it under the brand “Essentuki”. But it does not mean that other companies don’t want to use the known brand. They also produce water, despite the fact that their manufacturing located far from Essentuki.
So companies from Essentuki asked Russian patent service to deprive other companies, who don’t relate to Essentuki, of exploitation of brand name Essentuki. Rospatent has agreed and satisfied this requirement. 19 companies don’t have the right to use brand Essentuki anymore. These companies never have had access to natural spring, but exploited the brand under the permission of Rospatent. These permissions have been provided for 10 years. The issue with fake bottled water Essentuki has been resolved thanks to speaker of Russian Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko.
She required to call off the permissions and deprive unfair manufacturers of bottled water of the right to use brand Essentuki. She asked the simple question – how the company can have the right to use brand under the place of origin if it even does not have access to natural spring – to the chief of Rospatent and also asked why he did not call off these patents? It seems Rospatent executed the requirement of Matvienko, the requirements of right holders have been proceeded much faster when the Matvienko paid attention to this problem.