...And a Tea

• Author: Elizabeth March
• Position: WIPO Magazine Editorial Staff, Communications and Public Outreach Division

Often dubbed the national drink, South Africans have been drinking Rooibos tea for generations. The Rooibos (- literally "red bush") plant thrives only in certain arid areas of western South Africa in very particular soil conditions. While Rooibos production only involves about 350 farmers, it plays an essential role in the culture and economy of certain rural communities in the Wupperthal and Heiveld regions. But word about the health-giving properties of Rooibos tea has spread like wildfire in recent years, leading to a worldwide boom in its popularity.

Back in 1992 a South African company, Forever Young, registered Rooibos as a trademark in the U.S. for use on skincare products. When the company's owner retired in 2001, she sold the trademark for ten dollars to her American business partner, Burke International. While the major Rooibos processor in South Africa, Rooibos Ltd., had started procedures to get the trademark cancelled soon after its registration, the full implications only hit the popular press when a cooperative representing resource-poor Wupperthal farmers ran into legal problems trying to export their Rooibos to the U.S. Adding insult to injury, Burke International demanded royalties from South African companies for using the term Rooibos in the U.S. Fortunately for the South Africans, a number of U.S. coffee houses threw their weight behind the litigation process, as they too wanted to be able to sell Rooibos tea, and the case was settled out of court following a ruling in February 2005 by a district court in Missouri - but not before costing the industry $1 million.

The case led to the establishment of the Rooibos Council, and prompted the government and the industry to look with renewed urgency into how to protect products such as Rooibos, which are perceived as...