Company briefs - 2006-12-13

  • 2006-12-13
Elion, Estonia's telecom company, and Nonstop Television, a Swedish TV operator, announced they would begin offering high definition television in Estonia next year. Through the deal, Nonstop will become the first firm to offer high definition television in the Baltic states, the Swedish firm said in a press release. Nonstop Television, part of the Millennium Media Group that offers HDTV in Scandinavia and Iceland, operates the entertainment channel Star! and the movie channels Showtime and Silver.

A country court in Estonia ruled in favor of the Finnish steel group Rautaruukki in its suit against Ruukki Ehitus (Ruukki Construction) and Ruukki Eesti (Ruukki Estonia) demanding that the Estonian firms operating in the same sector stop using names similar to its own. Pursuant to the ruling, the Estonian companies must change their business names and statutes and cease using names closely resembling Rautaruukki's trademarks in their business and domain names and business operations. The Finnish concern registered its trademark Ruukki with the Estonian Patent Office in May 2004. In spring of the following year the group realized that two companies under the same ownership were operating in the same sector as it. The Finnish group repeatedly demanded that the firms stop breaching its trademark rights, but they did not comply.

Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy), a power utility, proposed that Sweden's Scaent sell Lithuanian electricity in Scandinavia. The first batch of electricity should reach Scandinavia via the Estlink cable on Dec. 8-9. The Swedish company had offered the best terms as compared with other participants of a relevant poll of Lietuvos Energija, said Edvaras Vazgela, a representative of the Lithuanian utility. Scaent, established three years ago, has been trading in electricity on NordPool Elspot market since 2004. The annual turnover of the company exceeds 60 million euros.