Smirnoff Offspring Sues US Brand Demanding Share of Profits

Kira Smirnova, the great-granddaughter of Petr Smirnov, the maker of the famous Smirnov vodka, has announced her plans to demand compensation from the owners of the U.S. brand Smirnoff. Smirnoff has been selling vodka, produced under Russian license for almost 70 years.

“I have submitted all the documents to the lawyers. I am fighting and I won’t give up. The Americans have thought that if they received a production license, that means that they bought the brand. But that’s not so,” Kira Smirnova said on Monday, Jan. 31, at a press conference held in RIA Novosti agency.

The heirs of the famous vodka maker who delivered his product to the Russian Tsars have established two trademarks of the famous vodka — the U.S. Smirnoff and the Russian Smirnov — and each maintains its priority and importance. The grandfather of Kira Smirnova, Vladimir Smirnov, emigrated after the October Revolution of 1917 and signed off a production license to the U.S. company which since then has been on the top of world vodka producers list. Vladimir Smirnov died soon, leaving heirs in Russia.

UDV company which owns the Smirnoff trademark is paying a life-long subsidy to approximately 60 heirs of Petr Smirnov, but Kira Smirnova refused the subsidy, because she hopes for a share of revenues. Alexander Nikishin, the head of the “House of Russian Vodka” company, who also spoke at the press conference said: “If Kira Smirnova receives a compensation for the use of brand over all these years, she will become as rich as Bill Gates.”

The great-granddaughter of the famous vodka maker said that she already knows how to spend such capitals — she plans to establish a Moscow museum dedicated to her great ancestor and a rehabilitation fund that will help people fight their alcohol addiction.