Written by Andrew Romeo Friday, 18 February 2011 00:00
Having caught up with the news of Swedish Match’s legal initiatives vs. BAT, and especially the boys at V2, I thought a bit of perspective is in order. When I was promoted to head Gallaher Sweden AB in 2005, we were in the midst of being sued by Swedish Match for producing snus products which were almost identical, from a packaging point of view, to their market leading positions with General, Grovt, Ettan and Probe. The product inside had also been radically improved.
Swedish Match went after Gallaher Sweden because, at the time, Gallaher had redesigned Gustavus standard in a black can, while also launching Gustavus '1e Kvalitet' (same meaning in Swedish as 'Ettan') in a dark yellow can and Gustavus 'Grovt' and Gustavus 'whiskey' in brown and reddish brown cans, respectively. Gallaher had indeed overstepped the line in terms of copying the designs and names of SWMA's main product lines.

Parliament has been a popular cigarette in Russia since the late 1990s. Unlike in the US, it is super-premium, priced above Marlboro alongside brands like Davidoff and Sobranie.
products, the most important being LD, which, for the first time, put a major global cigarette brand into the world of Other Tobacco Products (“OTP”).




