A marked challenge: why Cyprus failed in its latest Halloumi battle
The EU General Court issued three judgments on December 8, 2021, all of which concerned two trademark applications made by the Swiss company Fontana Food, which had applied for EU trademark protection for ‘Grilloumi’ (EU 015963291) and ‘Grilloumi Burger’ (EU 015963283) in October 2016 (T-556/19, T-593/19 and T-595/19).
These trademarks are a play on words on Halloumi, a type of cheese often associated with the island of Cyprus where it has been produced for many centuries.
The Republic of Cyprus and the Foundation for the Protection of the Traditional Cheese of Cyprus named Halloumi have both tried—in the past successfully—to protect the word ‘Halloumi’ for such cheeses originating from Cyprus.
It was no surprise that the Republic of Cyprus, relying on two Cypriot certification word marks ‘XAΛΛOYMI Halloumi’ and the Foundation, the owner of the EU collective trademark ‘Halloumi’ (EU 1082965) protected for cheese in class 29, both opposed the trademark applications for ‘Grilloumi’ and ‘Grilloumi Burger’. The opposition division and the board of appeal of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) both rejected the oppositions, which led to the judgments of the EU General Court.
The PDO issue
The most interesting of those three decisions is the judgment regarding the opposition against ‘Grilloumi Burger’ filed by the Foundation in February 2017, based on the EU collective mark ‘Halloumi’. As a background to this case, it has to be noted, that the Foundation could not rely on a protected designation of origin (PDO) for ‘Halloumi’, as ‘Χαλλούμι/Halloumi/Hellim’ was registered as a PDO only on April 12 2021.
Instead, the Foundation had to rely on its collective mark ‘Halloumi’, registered in 2000.
Next to the EU General Court’s comments on the similarity of the goods and services, the most important part of this decision concerns the court’s comments on the distinctive character of the earlier collective mark ‘Halloumi’ (paragraphs 63 to 72). The opposition division and the board of appeal had found that “on account of its descriptive character, the inherent distinctive character of the earlier mark was weak with respect to ‘cheese’.”
