OREANDA-NEWS. August 7, 2012. FAS of Russia has completed the consideration of the case, initiated on the application of OJSC "Moscow confectionery factory "Red October" (holding "United confectioners") towards OJSC "Confectionary factory named after N.K. Krupskaya" (since December of 2011, the company was renamed in JSC "Orkla brands of Russia") in connection with the production of "Krupskaya Alenka" chocolate with the declamation aimed at the protection of the rights of confectionery companies to manufacture products in "historical" etiquette. This declamation appeared for the first time in the history of Russian Federation.

"The decision, which we have now approved for „Alenka“, is not of a selective nature, and this principle will be applied to similar situations", — stated in his interview to RBC daily, Deputy head of FAS Andrey Kashevarov. This means that the Russian confectionery company, including Confectionery factory named after N.K. Krupskaya, that were producing for decades well known and popular trade marks of sweets, caramel, chocolate, have the full right to continue their manufacturing in the etiquette and under those names, which were used by them in the Soviet period. "Historically, the factory, which produced chocolate in the relevant etiquette, can produce it further on. Manufacturers of chocolate were originally producing it in accordance with the Law, that was in force on the territory of all the republics of the Soviet Union, including the territory of the Russian Federation. Thus, if one of the active participants of the market subsequently registers itself a trademark, then such registration requires an assessment from the point of view of reason, justice and integrity", — commented on the decision of the Commission of the FAS for Business FM Andrey Kashevarov.

Vadim Ter-Israelian, the CEO of "Orkla Brands Russia", expressing his attitude to the decision of FAS, said the following: "The Conclusions of the FAS of Russia, reflected in the decision, can determine the fate of the confectionery market of Russia in the most direct way — confectionery companies actually returned to themselves the right on using the „Soviet“ brands. Position of FAS in many ways, in my opinion, is based on the fact that in the legislation of the Russian Federation the norm has already existed once that allowed the manufacturer, who until October 1992 issued the products under the well-known confectionery brand, to continue in the future the usage of the brand (trademark) on the conditions of uncompensated simple (nonexclusive) license. Thus, the decision of the FAS solution allows us to apply to state bodies with the aim of returning to these norms at the legislative level. Our Norwegian shareholders (Orkla ASA) fully support this initiative, since it corresponds to the policy of the company and is aimed at the development of local historic brands and increase the quality of manufactured product".

In recent years the Russian confectionery industry events occur that have no precedent in international practice. Well-known Russian companies, that were producing popular confectionary products under well-known trade marks for decades, were forced not only to cut their production, but also to deal with the financial claims from the companies, which in the 90-ies of the last century have registered in fact monopoly rights on the larger part of the "Soviet" confectionery brands. Such actions are aimed at limiting fair competition on the confectionery market of Russia. It is absolutely obvious that the monopolization of the rights to Soviet brands in the hands of a single structure can negatively affect the prices of the confectionery products, that, in the end, will have an affect to the pursues of the consumers.

The need for the development of fair competition in Russia was also discussed in the framework of the 16-th St. Petersburg international economic forum, where Vladimir Putin has performed with the report "Effective leadership". The President has paid special attention to the privatization process, which is necessary for the formation of a new and modern structure of the economy, to reduce the risks associated with the inefficient management, to create equal conditions of competition. At the same time the President stressed out that " [ ... ] it should be fundamentally different privatization, which has nothing to do with the practice [ ... ] of dubious transactions, widely used in the 90-ies, when the state-owned assets that are created by previous generations of our citizens, were purchased, due to the proximity to the authorities at clearly undervalued prices, and often at the same time for the state money." Thus, the leader of the country once again marked the directions of activities for the bodies of Legislative and Executive authorities, which should lead to a better competitive investment climate.