"Ararat" was taken from the Armenians
But not all
The Appeal Board of Armpatent canceled the registration of the Great Ararat trademark, owned by Great Ararat Company LLC (a subsidiary of the Great Valley holding company). The company's main competitor, the Yerevan Brandy Factory (YBC) "Ararat" (owned by the French company Pernod Ricar), hastened to send out a press release to the media announcing its long-awaited victory in the trademark dispute. But they kept silent about something.

As the head of the patent department under the Armenian government, Sarkis Kantarjyan, told Kommersant, the Armpatent appeal chamber indeed canceled the registration of the Great Ararat trademark, but only for three-star cognacs produced by the Great Ararat Company and only on the territory of Armenia. The company's four-, five-star and vintage cognacs, no matter where they are produced, are not affected by this decision. Moreover, Great Ararat Company has the right to appeal this decision in the next six months. And as the head of the advertising and marketing department of the Great Ararat Company, Alexander Melkumyan, told Kommersant, his company will file a corresponding objection with Armpatent in the coming days. In any case, Great Ararat will not stop producing cognacs with the word “Ararat” on the label. But the YBC continues to insist that the court’s decision applies to all brands of Great Ararat cognac.
The conflict between Great Ararat and Pernod Ricar, the main competitors in the Armenian and Russian markets, has been dragging on for more than two years. The French have long been trying to force the management of Great Ararat to abandon the use of the word “Ararat” in trademarks and in the name of the company (this was one of the conditions of the investment agreement when they purchased YBC). Note that Pernod Ricar made the fate of Armenian vineyards, the main agricultural resource of the republic, dependent on the fulfillment of this condition. This year, the French company pledged to buy 20 thousand tons of grapes from winegrowers. Shortly before the meeting of the appeal council, half was purchased - 10 thousand tons. Almost at the same time, the Armenian government invited Great Valley to take over the management of the Moscow Ararat wine and cognac factory, owned by the Ministry of Agriculture of the republic. It is possible that this was compensation for patent concessions to the French. Such a compromise could have satisfied the parties if Pernod Ricar had not decided to loudly celebrate the victory by sending not entirely accurate information to the media. As a result, the information war between the two companies may flare up with renewed vigor: according to Kommersant, Great Valley intends to hold a press conference in Moscow one of these days.

SVETLANA Kommersant-MENTYUKOVA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 166 dated 09/07/2000, p. 5