Cyprus wins Halloumi trademark case against Indian company

The globally renowned and distinctive variety of cheese produced in Cyprus, Halloumi, has once again been the target of a foreign country's dairy company, this time from the Ahmedabad-based Flavi Dairy Solutions’.

Cyprus successfully restrained an Indian entity from registering Halloumi as a trademark in India. The government of Cyprus objected to Ahmedabad-based Flavi Dairy Solutions’ application to register a figurative trademark containing the expression ‘Halloumi’.

The application was potentially related to a consultancy service to develop technology and recipe formulation to produce cheese for its clients. Flavi is a dairy and food processing consultancy firm.

Halloumi is a trademark owned by the government of Cyprus and pertains to Cypriot cheese with some unique characteristics.

Flavi initiated the process of registration of ‘Halloumi’ in December 2021. The Cyprus government swung into action in May 2022. The Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus, responsible for the “protection" of the cheese and its trademark, filed an opposition before the Trade Marks Registry, Ahmedabad.

“It is a documented fact that intangibles like trademarks are in focus and becoming ‘wealth’ or ‘value’ creators. Today, intangible assets have an over 90% share in market valuations worldwide," said Safir Anand, Senior Partner, Anand and Anand, the law firm that fought the case for the Cyprus government.

“This is all the more reason why trademarks should be protected, monitored, enforced and commercialised," he said.

Though Halloumi is not a registered trademark in India, the Cyprus government, in its opposition, relied on its well-known nature and distinctiveness of the brand and the inextricable association of the mark with Cyprus.

Finally, a year and a half after the application was filed, the Indian entity did not contest the opposition and abandoned the application for the trademark. The office of the Trade Marks Registry, as of 20 November 2023, passed an order treating the application as abandoned.

READ MORE: GCT’s Halloumi bread recipe.