Trademark fight not over yet

• Published date: 26 January 2023
• Publication title: Northern Advocate, The (Whangarei, New Zealand)

Backed by the wider honey industry and government, New Zealand Mānuka Honey Appellation Society has been working to protect the term so that only honey from New Zealand can be called mānuka since 2015

It said mānuka was a Māori word and was a distinctive product of New Zealand.

In 2021, the UK Intellectual Office rejected the application.

The UMF Honey Association is supporting the claim — its chairperson, John Rawcliffe, said the industry learned a lot from the failed bid and was now trying again.

“We were able to stand back and understand a little bit more about the process about the legal nuances and we’ve been able to take all those on board and refile.”

The EU’s Intellectual Office was yet to make a decision but the Mānuka Charitable Trust had withdrawn its initial case and refiled there too, Rawcliffe...