Romanian Court Orders Withdrawal of AQUA CARPATICA Bottles from the Romanian Market

In May 2016, the Bucharest Tribunal ordered two Romanian companies, Valvis Holding and Carpathian Springs, to withdraw the AQUA CARPATICA water bottles from the Romanian market as the shape of the bottle was found to infringe the 3D EUTM VODAVODA registered in 2009 in the name of Sun Stars & Sons Pte Ltd, based in Singapore.

The court also ordered the cancellation of four national trademark registrations, three named AC AQUA AC (3D marks) and one named AQUA CARPATICA (combined mark), which the defendants registered in the time period 2011-2013.

The infringement action was filed in February 2015 by Sun Stars & Sons Pte Ltd, along with Grenki List Licenciranje, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia and Vojin Djordjevic, Serbian businessman, owner of the VODAVODA water bottling plant.

VODAVODA (Serbian: WaterWater) is a brand of mineral water from Banja Vrujci, a spa town located in central Serbia. AQUA CARPATICA water comes from springs within the Carpathian Mountains.

The defendants were ordered to cease carrying out all infringing acts, such as production, distribution, marketing and export of bottles of the same shape as that protected by the plaintiff’s EUTM, recall from the market and destroy such bottles, and take down any advertisements and promotional materials in which the products appeared. The court also ordered the defendants to publish the decision in three national daily newspapers at their own expense.

This decision may be appealed.

Prepared by: Rodica Gungor

For more information, please contact romania@petosevic.com.

Source: Bucharest Tribunal