Cristal to Be Booted Out of Russia?

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
May 6th 2009 at 9:01PM

It looks as though world famous French champagne house Cristal, a symbol of wealth and excess, will either have to cease sales in Russia or change its name if it wants to continue supplying oligarchs with party potion.

State-owned Christall Vodka, a sister brand of Stolichnaya, has taken Cristal to court on the grounds that customers will be confused by the similarity. Russia's copyright watchdog has ruled in favor of Christall, Russia Today reports; Cristal has said it plans to appeal.

The ruling is ironic given the fact that Cristal, which is produced by Louis Roederer, was first created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II of Russia while Christall Vodka is not even sold there. While Cristal only obtained its Russian license in 2006, however, Christall secured its copyright 30 years earlier.

In France, Christall Vodka lost a similar battle to Cristal, so some see the latest development as revenge. However, Christall's parent company denies this and says it would be open to allowing Cristal to keep selling if they agree to pay (a lot) for the privilege.

Tags: champagne, Cristal, France, Russia, Stolichnaya, vodka