[Ukr] call to Strömberg Legal Consultants

[GingeOrCringe]

Private/encrypted.

Innessa Sokolov, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, would make a private and encrypted call to Strömberg Legal Consultants from her office. Assuming the call would be screened by a secretary first, Ms. Sokolov would meet their questions with polite but strained monosyllabic replies. Her tone was not unlike that of a mother who has just discovered her favorite child has destroyed her favorite vase. She would explain that she needed to reach their international trade team for a brief consultation.

Connor

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Ms. Sokolov would wait silently on hold. She had heard different things about Störmberg Group and began wondering if the law firm was busy or if they were simply inept at their jobs. Unfortunatly, there weren’t many firms dealing in international law and the government Ukraine couldn’t be too picky.

Connor

 

[Connor]

Security Classification: DCS-02 - SECURE

Throughout the hold time a message would be repeated every 5 minutes by a deep male voice, initially spoken in English yet with a thick Swedish accent and repeated in Swedish, it would read: "Your call is important to us. Please hold the line and a representative will be with you as soon as possible. Thank you."

After an extensive hold time the call would be answered by a call handler from a small customer service team: "Hello, thank you for calling Strömberg - do you require Debt Collection Solutions or International Legal Consultancy?"

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

private/encrypted

“International. This is Inessa Sokolov, I’m a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of defense. You might have heard about RusAr’s recent public apology. I would like to discuss that matter...”

Connor

 

[Connor]

The call is immediately diverted to a representative of Strömberg International Legal Consultants, Jon Karv.
"Hello Inessa, my name is Jon from Brand and Contracts - I have been briefed on the situation with RusAr, what is it you wish to discuss?"

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"I will start with our grievances in regards to Argentina’s actions.

"The first injustice is that Ukrainian products—intentionally or unintentionally—were manufactured without our consent and possibly sold for profit. As an independent nation we have the right to control our intellectual property, but that right was violated.

"The second injustice is that RusAr did not directly inform us—though we suspect they realized their mistake earlier than we did. Their written statement doesn't make amends for any of the offenses they intentionally or unintentionally committed. Frankly it doesn't read like an apology, despite their admission to counterfeiting our products. If a doctor or mechanic were to make a mistake in their work, they would be required to inform the damaged party and to offer compensation—not make excuses.

"The third injustice is that we do not know the location of these illegally manufactured products. This is an embarrassment to Ukraine. Once again, our right to control our intellectual property as a legitimate, recognized state has been stomped on. RusAr recognized this right in their apology statement, but their failure to provide information as to the location of our products demonstrates they do not actually respect it.

"Russia complicates things. They are Ukraine's sibling nation. Despite any unspoken threat of retaliation from them, Ukraine would genuinely like to get along with our brothers. Out of respect, we contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense, rather than contacting RusAr's Argentinian branch directly. Unfortunately, they have ignored almost all of our questions."

She sighed. "We would like to restore any damage done to Ukraine's legitimacy as an independent state. That is the most important goal for us, but I'm not sure it can be done without agitating Russia. I have an idea, but I would like to know what Strömberg Group suggests as the best course for legal action?"

Connor

 

[Connor]

"I will address these step by step.

First of all the production of Ukrainian products is absolutely a violation of your intellectual property rights as, for all intents and purposes, advised goods as products of RusAr and not that of the respective Ukrainian company - clerical error or not this is a clear cut violation of civil law. Secondly, RusAr's public acknowledgement of their mistake does not diminish their responsibility to recompensate the Ukrainian organisations which have lost profit and manufacturing cost - in addition to the undeniable risks to Ukrainian national security which were not taken into account during the sale of these products. Third, the unknown placement of these illegally manufactured products around the globe only adds to the threat now posed to Ukraine and their failure to respond to you could serve as evidence of intentional malice in court.

We like to see civil disputes sit outside of domestic agenda and bilateral political relations - if you were to procede with legal action it would be against the organisation RusAr and their subsidiaries, whether or not they are funded by the government is unknown to me but none-the-less notices would be served to the organisation.

I believe you have a strong case for out-of-court settlement and progression via the courts should that fail. Should you request to proceed with our firm, we will discuss the costs - the next step would be for us to serve the relevant and correct legal paperwork to request information from RusAr regarding this violation and begin the negotiations for settlement in order to recompensate profit loss, manufacture, reputational damages and threat to national security."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"I see. So that is one possible rout for us to pursue... I'm are thankful your company is taking this so seriously, you seem to be the only ones so far. I'm curious, would you happen to know who is responsible for maintaining and updating the international equipment licensing registry? I suspect it's the GA, but I really haven't looked into it myself."

Connor

 

[Connor]

"To my knowledge there is no such registry, at least not for the registration of military equipment in normal operational service. There is the Strategic Arms Register which is managed by the Global Assembly following the Resolution for Strategic Ordnance Prohibition, informally known as 'STOP' but other than this, there is no other international register."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"Would there be a statute of limitations on this?" She paused "Also, how much do you charge?"

Connor

 

[Connor]

"I don't like to look at the statute of limitations if I don't have to... these kind of cases have the tendancy to drag on for months, if you're interested in proceeding then we need as much time as possible to one, negotiate the possibility of an out-of-court disposal or, two, proceed via the courts for a formal judgement.

Payment for our services are usually recieved in a bulk payment however given the circumstances we'd be happy to take an initial payment of $300,000,000 and a 45% cut of any settlement made - should we be unsuccessful we will adopt a no win, no fee policy. You will not be out of pocket, you have been taken advantage of by RusAr already, you won't recieve the same treatment by our firm."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"If you don't mind, I will need some time to discuss this with my colleagues. We will contact you by the end of the week with our decision. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today and regardless of what decision Ukraine comes to, we would be more than willing to pay a fee for this consultation." If there was no more Jon Karv would like to add, Sokolov would politely end the call.

Connor