Hard cheese for Cypriot halloumi producers as they suffer EU court defeat
Bulgarian cheesemakers won a legal victory over their Cypriot rivals on Wednesday after an EU court ruled for a second time that their "Bbqloumi" cheese would not be confused with halloumi.
The Foundation for the Protection of the Traditional Cheese of Cyprus had brought the case before the Luxembourg court, arguing the Bulgarian name was too similar to its halloumi trademark.
In March last year, the European Court of Justice threw out an earlier ruling in favour of Bbqloumi and ordered a lower EU court to re-examine its own earlier ruling in case it misled customers.
In the latest twist in a long-running legal battle, the EU’s general court on Wednesday confirmed the European Union Intellectual Property Office was right to grant Bbqloumi the European trademark.
Cyprus claims to be the original home of the squeaky grilling cheese, which is made from goat and sheep milk mixed with liquid rennet.
Cypriot cheesemakers have waged legal battles against foreign imitators that put lookalike products such as “grilloumi” and “white grill cheese” on the market. Cyprus' “white gold” accounts for more than 15 percent of its domestic exports.
The General Court said that while the two trademarks shared the element ‘loumi’, “the attention of the relevant public will be drawn more to the initial part of that word element, namely the part ‘bbq’, owing to its position, rather than to the final part ‘loumi’.”
“Thus, the low degree of similarity of the signs in question is unlikely to contribute to the existence of a likelihood of confusion,” the court added.
It said there was also little chance of people accidentally buying Bbqloumi in the belief it was Cypriot halloumi.
“Even if consumers were to focus their attention on the element ‘loumi’, which is unlikely given its secondary position, and were to perceive the figurative element as a possible reference to halloumi cheese grilled on the barbecue, they will not establish a link between the two marks,” the court said.
