John & Pascalis, the British firm which revoked the Cyprus Republic’s UK Halloumi trademark intends to continue its legal action against Nicosia through the European courts.
After achieving the revocation of the trademark registered by Cyprus in the UK, the Halloumi importers are continuing their efforts to annul the European trademark awarded to Cyprus and the cancellation of the Halloumi trademark registered in Cyprus itself.
They have also filed an appeal to the Product of Designated Origin (PDO) file as submitted to the European Commission.
Sources close to the company said that since the ministries involved have no shown intent to respond to the company’s claims or to meet with them, it has no choice but to go ahead with their plans.
The company feels this is the only way to protect the Cypriotness of the squeaky cheese and their imports from the island, being the UK’s number one halloumi importer.
In its file submitted to the UK, European and Cypriot courts for the revocation and/or cancellation of the Halloumi trademark awarded to Cyprus, the company states that the authorities are not in a position to control the trademark, which would mean that after a certain period of time, the product in question becomes a general name.
John & Pascalis argue the Ministry of Agriculture is contradicting itself as to what it considers Halloumi to be.
“On the one hand the Ministry is promoting the PDO file which includes a strict description of what Halloumi should be, with a ratio of more than 50% goat or sheep milk, its shape and weight, and on the other hand it gives approval for products such as flavoured Halloumi, Halloumi light, and Halloumi in burger shapes to be exported under the Halloumi trademark,” a company spokesperson said.
It also believes that the PDO file should not have been submitted by the Agriculture ministry, as “such files are submitted by groups of producers and not government authorities”.
The spokesperson said an appeal against the Cypriot PDO was filed to the European General Court by a group of European Dairy Producers in cooperation with the British Retail Consortium, a trade association in the UK. The appeal has yet to be examined.
Replying to this argument, a Ministry of Agriculture source told the Financial Mirror that the Cypriot PDO file was submitted by the ministry on behalf of a group of goat and sheep milk producers.
It is understood by the Financial Mirror that the company will not stop their legal actions even if the PDO is approved by the European Commission and is ready to appeal to the European General Court for its cancellation.
The company is referring to EU regulation 11.51 which stipulates that any PDO file should aim at increasing producers’ income.
John & Pascalis believes that the PDO file as submitted by the Cypriot authorities will actually reduce the income of producers as a series of products will not be labelled halloumi.
An Agriculture ministry source said that for the moment Halloumi’s Cypriotness is protected by the European trademark but stressed that threats against Cyprus’ traditional cheese will end with the approval of the PDO file.
He said that this will put an end to all producers and traders illegally profiting from Halloumi.
“Once the PDO file is approved, then the European Union legal services will be the competent authority to go after illegal producers and traders of Halloumi. As things stand today the Cypriot legal Services have their hands full with some 80 cases,” the official said.
Opposition parties raised their voices over the halloumi blunder and called for the resignation of Minister of Commerce, George Lakkotrypis.
Centre-right DIKO said blaming the gaff on a few civil servants in the commerce ministry was not good enough.
"The bottom line is that what happened with halloumi is a monument to incompetence in managing a matter of significance for the Cypriot economy, " said DIKO leader Nicolas Papadopoulos.
"It is a product that generates millions in revenue for the Cypriot economy and the halloumi trademark is one of the most important, if not the most important trademark of the Republic of Cyprus," he added.
AKEL has also called for the minister's resignation after the government itself described the halloumi fiasco as "suicide".
Cyprus lost the trademark in Britain on November 28 due to the commerce ministry's failure to respond on time to applications filed by John & Pascalis, to invalidate or revoke the trademark.
A UK court ruled in favour of the company because the Cyprus government took more than a reasonable length of time to present its case.
The UK is the biggest market for the popular squeaky cheese, absorbing 40 percent of halloumi exports generating around €80 million a year. Cyprus expects to yield 300 million euros in exports from halloumi by 2023.
President Anastasiades dismissed opposition calls to sack the commerce minister, giving him a vote of confidence, despite the minister acknowledging that his ministry was culpable in losing the British legal battle.
"As I explained to parliament, this is a serious mistake on behalf of my Ministry. It was very important to forward the letters (from the courts in the UK) to the Legal Service to handle the matter, but despite instructions given the letters were never passed on," Lakkotrypis told Alpha TV.
Lakkotrypis said that he wished to correct the way the news has been presented, saying that Cyprus has not lost Halloumi in the UK, nor has any firm been awarded the trademark.
“Halloumi exports will not stop. What we have lost is an important tool which helped us defend the trademark. Together with the Legal Service, we are considering appealing against the recent UK trademark decision, "he added.
