Cypriot farmers have recently won back the exclusive right to sell their
cheese products as ‘Halloumi’ in the UK after re-securing the trademark it lost
in 2018.
Participating on the part of these farmers, the Cypriot ministry first
obtained Trademark Protection for ‘Halloumi’ from the
UK Intellectual
Property Office in 1990. However, in association with a legal
challenge brought by the UK-based cheese producers, the trademark had been
revoked in the year 2018. The verdict was a result of an administrative error
as the Cypriot ministry failed to respond to the legal requests within the
asked time frame. Nevertheless, now the ministry has secured the protection
again.
According to a Patent and Trademark
Attorney, this significant win for the Cypriot farmers means that they
have regained an exclusive right to use the mark ‘Halloumi’ while selling their
cheese product in the UK. Because of the growing market for this product in the
UK, this is expected to prove profitable for them. However, the farmers are
unlikely to limit themselves there. They have already filed a Trademark
Application for achieving ‘protected food name’ status to the
European Commission, and if successful, their application would bring permanent
protection. But as it’s likely to take some time, trademark protection in the
UK will be beneficial to them in the meantime.
The attorney said that the food and drink producers in the UK might not
be aware that they are allowed to apply for ‘protected food name’ status to
secure protection for products with unique characteristics that can be linked
to a specific geographical location or specified product. The attorney
continued that this Trademark Registration certification would
affect those who are producing cheese products. It is so because they could not
label the product as ‘Halloumi’ unless it meets the certification mark
requirements. Hence, restaurants should take care of not to define something as
‘Halloumi’ wrongly.
The attorney further added that if there’s no food name protection in
place, and the misuse isn’t spotted as soon as possible, the use of the name or
product could become generic. As a consequence, it would lose its eligibility
for protected status. For example – ‘Cheddar’ is a name that has now become
generic, and thus, no longer capable of obtaining such protection.
The Protected Food Name scheme, which was established by the UK
government in 1993, is helpful for producers who want to use a geographical
place name as part of their product’s brand identity for preventing others from
marketing their items under the same name.
Since a large number of products have achieved the ‘protected food name’
status, there is no reason why Halloumi producers should not look for the same.
Still, the application by these producers has been affected by many delays.
Nonetheless, now it has gained the approval, meaning that the producers have
re-secured ‘Halloumi’ trademark protection in the UK.
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