Bittersweet in the Manuka Honey trademark battle
The Manuka Honey trademark battle is a bittersweet battle as the applicant – a group of honey producers in New Zealand is rejected the trademark for the term “Manuka Honey” in many countries.
The honey-producing industry in New Zealand has long been famous throughout the world. This includes Manuka honey – one of its best types of honey available.
Specifically, manuka honey is made from bees that feed on the Leptospermum scoparium plant, a shrub-type evergreen tree with white or pink flowers. Grown in both New Zealand and Australia, the tree is also called “manuka” in New Zealand and “tea tree” in Australia. Known to have medicinal, health, and beauty benefits, manuka honey is a major export in both countries.
Accordingly, a group of honey producers in New Zealand, Manuka Honey Appellation Society, funded by the government of New Zealand, has been sending their trademark applications for “Manuka Honey” throughout the world, intending to make the term exclusive for the honey producing industry in New Zealand.
However, this effort has encountered many roadblocks, such as when the UK Intellectual Property Office rejected their application to register Manuka Honey as a trademark in December 2021.
In addition, the application is also rejected both in the United States and Australia, New Zealand’s long rival.
The Australian Manuka Honey Association has stated that the trademark can’t be registered as the tree used to produce the honey is grown in both countries, Australia and New Zealand. They also stated that the quality of both the honey products from both regions is the same and Australia has been churning out manuka honey since the 1840s. Accordingly, in their argument, New Zealand can’t exclusively register the trademark “Manuka honey”.
Rejection of the UK IP Office
According to the UK IP Office, the word “Manuka” is a Maori word that has been adapted into the English language as a descriptive term.
The IP office stated that although most manuka honey products in the UK market may appear to have come from New Zealand, there is currently no proof that the relevant public in the UK is aware that these are products exclusively from New Zealand and nowhere else.
The office also said that references in dictionaries and press releases, as well as evidence from the Food Standards Agency project, implying that the public understanding of the term “manuka honey” in the UK is that it refers to a honey product from New Zealand and Australia.
Consequently, based on the following reasons, the UK IP Office has rejected the trademark application for the term “Manuka honey” by the Manuka Honey Appellation Society in New Zealand.
Expert opinions
Marion Heathcote, a principal at Davies Collison Cave in Sydney, stated about the bittersweet battle of Manuka honey: “This is reflective of a more nuanced debate than this decision, and other similar decisions in different jurisdictions, would seemingly imply. On its face, the debate is simply about whether the word ‘manuka’ is the accepted common name of Leptosperum scoparium, a small tree found to be native to both Australia and New Zealand, and thereby whether the honey from bees who source nectar from those trees is also therefore descriptively known as ‘manuka honey’ and therefore can apply to products from either Australia and/or New Zealand that satisfy nectar source. The Australian position is that it is, the New Zealand position is that it is not, manuka having been derived from a Maori word and the general public on seeing the word associating it solely as a product of New Zealand. In the first instance, the Comptroller General’s representatives have found that on the market evidence available to it, that in the UK attempts to secure exclusivity by means of a certification mark as to country of origin fails as that market sees the term as reflective of a ‘honey type’ rather than ‘a honey source.'”
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– You could see the Procedure of Trademark in New Zealand here.
– You could also see the Required documents of filing trademark in New Zealand here.
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