GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – South Africa’s beloved herbal tea, rooibos, has become an international favourite in recent years, but the world’s love of the red tea isn’t without problems, centred around trademark issues. A green form of the tea exists, too, but is less common and more expensive to produce.
IP Watch in Geneva reports that “earlier this year, the South African government and the South African Rooibos Council went on the defensive when news broke of a French company’s attempt to register a trademark for rooibos. The South African Rooibos Council lodged an ‘observation’ with French authorities so that their objection could be noted.”
The company turned out to be South African and it had to dig into its archives to determine if it in fact held the trademark. It did, but it also had others that had lapsed, and the company said it would be happy to turn over its trademark if a government agency in South Africa is created to protect rooibos. Othes in the industry say there is no problem with brands having trademarks for their own products.
The sudden fame of the drink in recent years has caught the industry offguard. It is now trying to get GI (geographic indication) protection in Europe but, reports IP Watch, it must first have it in South Africa, a process that is underway. GI protection would make it possible to limit the use of the label to producers who meet a set of criteria, including that the tea must come from South Africa.
A 10-year battle ensued in the US over an American company’s trademark of the name there and its efforts to force other companies to pay a fee for the use of the name rooibos. It gave up its claims in 2005 after losing a court battle.
Aspalathus linearis, the broom-like plant from the Legume family, that is used to make South Africa’s rooibos teaThe tea, an infusion made from Aspalathus Linearis, a broom-like plant native to the Cape in South Africa.
Wikipedia on its origins:
“The Rooibos plant is endemic to a small part of the western coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa, forming part of the fragile fynbos biome. It grows in a symbiotic relationship with local micro-organisms, and past attempts to grow Rooibos outside this area, in places as far afield as the United States, Australia and China, have all failed. Now, climate change may threaten the future survival of the plant and the R600-million Rooibos industry. Increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfall may result in the extinction of the Rooibos plant within the next century.”