Lithuanian Maxima accuses Belarusian Mart Inn of cloning

The largest Baltic retailer Maxima grupė and the firm Franmax, in which it will transform staring from October, has accused owners of of the Belarusian retail network Mart Inn of cloning and the use of their concept.

According to ej.by with reference to the Lithuanian media, the Vilnius District Court will review legal proceedings against the owners of the leading Belarusian network Mart Inn Food Gintaras Marcinkevičius, Egle Martsinkyavichute and Mindagavskas Martinkyavichus. At the same time, Gintaras and Mindagavskas Marcinkevičius are minority owners of VP gpupe, which owns Maxima stores.

Maxima grupė and Franmax claim that Martinkyavichus stole their intellectual property. In addition, they said, the illegal use of stolen information about the network Mart Inn makes it virtually impossible to develop a network of Maxima stores on the Belarusian market. They are demanding compensatation for damages.

Stolen intellectual property here is some trade technological and technical solutions, used by the network Mart Inn - product placement, the visual design of retail spaces, the look of chain stores.

According to experts, the case of cloning is, most likely, a part of a corporate war within the VP grupe. Its main participants are the main shareholder of VP grupe and Maxima grupė, the world's richest Lithuanian Nerijus Numavichus and co-owner of the Mart Inn Mindagavskas Martinkyavichus.

Photo: komkur.info