Business Day  INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS; Russian Court Blocks a Use
of Smirnoff Name  Published: September 22, 1995  A Russian court
has ruled that the American vodka Smirnoff, the world's biggest-
selling vodka brand, cannot be sold under that name in Russia.
The ruling follows a complaint brought in 1993 by the American
distributor and producer of Smirnoff, Heublein Inc., which
sought to stop the Russian descendants of Peter Smirnoff, who
distilled vodka for the czar before the Russian Revolution in
1917, from selling vodka under the Smirnoff name in Russia.
Heublein, a unit of Grand Metropolitan P.L.C. of Britain, sells
Smirnoff vodka in the United States. International Distillers
and Vintners, another arm of Grand Met, markets the brand in
other countries, including Russia.  But earlier this month, a
district court in Krasnodar in southern Russia where the vodka
was being made by some members of the Smirnoff family, declared
that the use of the Smirnoff trademark by Heublein in Russia was
unlawful. The cour