January 22 2004, 15:20 UNIAN

Antimonopoly committee may ban macaroni brand, allegedly named after Ukrainian top songstress

Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee (ACU) is finishing considering the case on a claim of popular Ukrainian songstress Tayisiya Povaliy, regarding production of the macaroni brand "Taya" (Taya - shortened from Tayisiya), and is planning to make the final decision on this unprecedented for this country case in early February this year, at an open sitting, a spokesman for the Committee has informed.

The pop songstress has accused the company "Ukrainskiye Makarony, Ltd" in unlawful use of her scenic name "Taya" in the pasta goods brand.

The spokesman said that in an attempt to be objective, investigating such an unusual case, ACU had carried out a sociological study. Its results have proved that a part of Ukrainian consumers do indeed associate the brand-name "TAYA" with the name and artistic activities of Tayisiya Povaliy. Taking into account the fact that the artist did not give her permission for use of her name as a brand mark, the Committee does not rule out the possibility of banning further production of the product under such a name.

The Head of the Committee Oleksiy Kostusev has commented the investigation as follows: "It has been for the first time that the Committee faced the necessity to investigate the influence of a scenic name on psychology of food product consumers. We will base our final decision on the sociological study of consumers' perception of TV advertising. This unprecedented case will be undoubtedly included into future textbooks on competition studies."