MONACO BRANDS was informed of the launch of a payment card called “MONACO VISA®” by the company FORIS Limited.

The company FORIS Limited (previously called “MASTERFUND TECHNOLOGY LIMITED”) is a very new Hong Kong company, registered on 30 June 2016. It appears to operate the “MONACO VISA®” via the Swiss company “MONACO TECHNOLOGY GMBH”.

MONACO BRANDS recalls that the name “MONACO” is protected worldwide and indicates that it has not issued any authorisation to use the name “MONACO” to the companies FORIS LIMITED and MONACO TECHNOLOGY GMBH.

Furthermore, MONACO BRANDS stipulates that these two companies do not exercise any activity within the territory of the Principality of MONACO. The payment card “MONACO VISA®” therefore has no link to the territory of the Principality of MONACO.

MONACO BRANDS, whose role is to protect, increase the value of and defend all of the worldwide portfolio of the brands “MONACO” and “MONTE CARLO” associated with the Principality considers that the launch of this payment card infringes its rights.

It takes the actions of the companies FORIS LIMITED and MONACO TECHNOLOGY GMBH and intends to take all of the measures necessary to preserve the intellectual property rights which it owns. For this purpose, it has already initiated opposition proceedings against the applications to register the trademarks by FORIS LIMITED as part of this activity.