Mobile giant Ericsson tracks bootlegged Asian wine

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040930/323/f3niv.html

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The Swedish mobile equipment maker Ericsson has set its lawyers on the tracks of bootleggers who are selling wine across Asia stamped with its brand name, the company said.

"Someone is trying to make a profit from our brand. We have known about this for some time already, and have put our lawyers on the case," the company's head of media relations Ola Rembe told AFP.

"We are taking the matter very seriously," he added.

Although the exact scale of the scam is still unknown, Ericcson believes the bogus wine is being sold in several Asian countries including Vietnam -- where the brand apparently doubles as a gauge of quality in wine.

The Swedish business daily Dagens Industri printed shots of the incriminating bottles: Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon white wine, tagged with both the name of the New Zealand producer Brookfields and Ericsson's logo.

"We had some bottles stamped with our brand a few years ago, for our clients in the region, but it involved a very small sample that could absolutely not account for the current case," Rembe explained.

In a twist of fate, however, Ericsson's former boss in China, who had ordered the branded bottles at the time, has since left the company to branch into the wine business in New Zealand, the Dagens Industri reported.