Official patent for Commandaria

COMMANDARIA has been recognised as an inimitable and indigenous product of Cyprus by the Canadian government, which has given the island the exclusive patent rights to the popular desert wine.

The decision was reached by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and Registrar of Trademarks, who issued a certification mark to the Cyprus Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism for Commandaria.

Cyprus now has a five-year period to gain complete Trademark status. The pronouncement is based on Canadian law and will be announced in the Canadian Trademark Journal.

Dennis Droushiotis, Trade Counsellor of Cyprus to the US and Canada, said this was an important and progressive step forward for Cyprus in the wine industry.
“This decision is in favour of wine makers in Cyprus and protects the Cypriot wine industry, especially since Commandaria is widely exported to North America,” said Droushiotis.

He added Commandaria was extremely popular in Canada and had gained coverage in reviews in American and Canadian wine magazines including the well-known Wine Enthusiast that listed Commandaria as one of the 10 best desert wines in the world.
The president of the Consumers’ Association Petros Markou said yesterday he was extremely pleased with Canada’s decision to recognise Commandaria as an original product of Cyprus.

“I was expecting this to happen because Commandaria is a wine that is indigenous to our island. This is very good news,” said Markou.

Commandaria has a reputation as one of the wines with the oldest history in the world. It dates back to the time of the Crusader kingdom of Cyprus.

Cyprus’ most traditional wine is made of sweet grapes grown in vineyards near Limassol and the lower foothills of the Troodos slopes.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.