Τhe EU General Court (Fourth chamber) dismissed Cyprus’ appeals against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (for trade marks and designs) decisions in 2013 not to accept the trade names HALLOUMI and XAΛΛOYMI as “community trade marks.”
A Trade Ministry official said on Thursday that the government, in collaboration with the Law Service, are examining the decision and are considering to file a new appeal, probably within the next two months.
The official said that “halloumi” is already registered with OHIM as a “community collective trademark”, which is superior to the community trade mark.
Under the “collective community” recognition, halloumi is produced only in Cyprus with certain ingredients and production methods, while the producers are Cypriots and are enrolled on a registry in Cyprus.
The General Court said in a statement dismissed the Republic of Cyprus appeals and adopted the initial decisions by OHIM.
Upholding the OHIM arguments, the Court said that “the marks applied for could not be accepted for registration because of their descriptive meaning of the goods in respect of which registration was sought, at least for the Cypriot public.”
It also notes that “that the signs directly describe, at least for the Cypriot public, the kind and geographical origin of the cheese.”
In July, the traditional soft-cheese was on its way to getting its Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) registration, after the European Commission published the application to register the names ‘Halloumi’ in Greek and ‘Hellim’ in Turkish, for a cheese produced in all the territory of Cyprus. The objection period expires in December.
Agriculture Minister Nicos Kouyialis had said that there will also be a modification to the Green Line Regulation in order to allow Turkish Cypriots to trade halloumi through the ports of the Republic.
Some European countries are expected to object to the halloumi registration as a PDO, especially European countries with high production of milk and dairy products.
According to the application, halloumi is made of fresh sheep or goat’s milk or a mixture thereof, with or without cow’s milk added, rennet, fresh or dried Cypriot mint leaves and salt. The proportion of sheep or goat’s milk or the mixture thereof must always be greater than the proportion of cow’s milk. The milk used for making halloumi is Cypriot full-fat milk.
The milk must be pasteurised or have been heated to a temperature above 65C. It must not be condensed milk or contain milk powder, casein salts, colourings, preservatives or other additives. It must not contain antibiotics, pesticides or other harmful substances.
The sheep and goat’s milk comes from local breeds and their crosses that have adapted to the island’s climate. The cow’s milk comes from black and white cows that were gradually introduced in Cyprus, starting at the beginning of the 20th century, and are now very well adapted to local conditions. Halloumi cheese must be packaged within the defined geographical area.
Meanwhile, Bureau Veritas has been appointed as the control body in charge of quality control of the halloumi, lifting the final obstacle for the semi-soft white cheese to secure the long awaited protected designation of origin (PDO).
This means that dairy producers on both sides of the island’s divide will be able to export their products freely and combat any attempt by cheese-makers in other countries to copy or label halloumi, or ‘hellim’, as their own.
The decision was announced by the European Commission in Brussels, a day after Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had a joint meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in Nicosia after he said that the deadlock on the subject had been broken.
Exports from the Republic are estimated at about EUR 85-90 mln a year, while hellim shipments from the Turkish Cypriot side are a fraction of that, but account for nearly 25% of all their exports.
Greek dairy giant Dodoni AE has established a Cyprus subsidiary, Dodoni Dairy Products (Cyprus) Ltd. that will start producing halloumi and anari cheese from spring 2016.
The company is setting up a new production plant in Limassol’s Ypsonas area from where it will try to tap into the EUR 90 mln market by exporting the traditional Cyprus cheeses to its market network of 35 countries, taking advantage of the recent PDO registration of halloumi.
