Italian wine and spirits company Bottega S.p A. has stepped up its efforts against companies that copy its iconic gilded bottles of sparkling wine, copyrighting the design and the three-dimensional Community trademark which reproduces the embossed letter “B” on the gilded bottles.
The patent has led to the seizure of approximately 40,000 bottles of wine with copy-cat packaging by authorities in November in Treviso, Italy.
The gilded livery of Bottega Gold, created by Sandro Bottega, perfected a technique that embeds the metallization in the exterior layer of the glass. The company says that it focuses on research and innovation for its products and packaging; and has invested heavily in creating a gilding that stands the heavy friction of the bottling line, retaining its lustre.
Since its release in 2005, Bottega Gold –a Prosecco Doc sparkling wine – has often been copied. Following the recognition of three-dimensional embossed letter “B” trademark, Bottega SpA brought a series of lawsuits against countless imitations, which led to the seizure of the 40,000 bottles of wine in Treviso at the end of the year.
The company reports the other Bottega products have also been counterfeited: Alexander “Grappa Spray” in Brazil, Alexander “Grappa Platinum” in France, “Il Vino dell’Amore Petalo Moscato” in China. In 2013 and 2014, two different trials found Italian companies from Piedmont and Lombardy guilty of breaching the copyright laws.
