GUYANA
THE REAL Cameron & Shepherd
DEMERARA SUGAR
Guyana is famous as the home of Demerara, and the sugar that bears its name. But there are questions as to whether Demerara sugar actually has to come from Demerara.
Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, is in the County of Demerara, on the eastern bank of the Demerara River, on the north eastern coast of Guyana.
Subsequent to its settlement by the Amerindians, its indigenous inhabitants, Guyana was a Dutch colony and passed through French and British hands before independence in 1966.
T roughout its colonial history Demerara was, and it continues to be, a centre of sugar cane cultivation and sugar production.
T e sugar cultivated and produced in Demerara is widely exported and has developed a strong reputation due to its unique qualities. It is a crystallised cane sugar with a special aroma, crunchy texture and golden colour.
Originally, the colour resulted from the practice of vacuum pan-boiling the sugar cane in a tin. A chloride of tin converted portions of the sugar into caramel and thereby imparted the unique golden colour. A later process involved the use of an organic dye contained in a colouring matter known as ‘golden bloom’, apparently because the original process leſt traces of tin in the sugar.
T ese processes of manufacture have resulted in Demerara sugar being distinctive from all other sugars. However, other sugar producers have sought to imitate the process by using dyes and calling their sugar ‘demerara’.
T e distinction between genuine Demerara and other sugars was recognised as far back as 1913, when the British High Court in the case of Anderson v Britcher accepted the report of a government sugar expert that the sugar purchased was: “not genuine Demerara sugar but cane sugar with an organic dye foreign to Demerara sugar so that the sugar (purchased) was not of the quality, substance or nature of the article demanded by the purchaser (ie, genuine Demerara sugar)”.
72 World Intellectual Property Review e-Digest 2013
T e court nevertheless found there was no deception in the use of the word ‘demerara’, which it found had become generic. T e fact that the processes used in the production of genuine Demerara sugar have evolved over time does not undermine the fact that it was, and still is, a distinctive and unique sugar.
So while it has been contended that the name ‘demerara’ has become generic, as P. Roubier (in Le Droit de la Propriété Industrielle 44 TAR 1954 p722) has argued:“the product’s name cannot belong to the public domain because the exclusivity of its origin will make products from any other source bearing that name deceptive”.
Despite this, Mauritius continues to produce sugar which it calls ‘Demerara’ sugar, which is in fact not produced in Guyana and is not genuine Demerara cane sugar.
As a response, the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc, which produces genuine Demerara sugar, has embarked on a worldwide campaign to register its trademark ‘Genuine Demerara Gold’ in respect of the sugar produced in Demerara, Guyana, and continues with its eff orts to vindicate to consumers the world over, the unique qualities of its product.
(T is article has been extracted from an opinion given by O’Connor & Company, European lawyers to the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc, and is published in this edited form with the kind permission of the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc.)
Cameron & Shepherd is the oldest and largest law fi rm in Guyana and has been in operation since 4 April 1901.
The law reports of British Guiana and Guyana and, since 1958, the West Indian Reports (WIR), are replete with cases argued by Cameron & Shepherd, including many which have become important precedents.
www.worldipreview.com
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