The Hungarian Government encourages Heineken and Csíki Sör Manufaktúra to engage in talks in their trade mark usage dispute, János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated at his press conference held in Csíkszentsimon after visiting the site of Igazi Csíki Sör.
The Minister hopes that a satisfactory agreement may be reached „in the struggle between David and Goliath” within a month.
Mr Lázár said: representatives of the Hungarian Government have had talks in recent days with the Management of Heineken Hungary and the Dutch Ambassador to Budapest, and asked their partners to help settle the Csík beer dispute in an amicable manner. He remarked: they respect the fact that Heineken gives Hungarian people jobs both in Hungary and in Transylvania, and pays a fair sum in taxes. „We therefore ask the Heineken Group to enforce the principle of live and let live”, he said.
In answer to a question, the Minister added: „if Heineken is not willing to cooperate (…) and continues to want to trample on Igazi Csíki Sör, the Government has a number of tools in its hands which we are ready to deploy in the interest of the protection of Hungarian national interests”.
He remarked: Hungarian businesses which find themselves in trouble may rely on the assistance of the Hungarian Government, while multinational corporations which abuse their power at the expense of Hungarian businesses may expect to see the Hungarian Government take action against them.
The Minister further announced: the Government will propose to Parliament that they raise the limit, up to which micro-breweries may avail themselves of an excise duty discount. At present, they are only required to pay 50 per cent of the standard excise duty up to an annual production of 8 thousand hectolitres in Hungary, and the Government wishes to raise this threshold to 200 thousand, he said.
„This will be significant help, as we hope, for all micro-breweries in Hungary and all Hungarian micro-breweries”, the Minister said. In answer to the question of the Hungarian news agency MTI, he clarified his statement: this measure will apply to breweries in Hungary as well as to micro-breweries selling their products in Hungary, including the manufacturer of Igazi Csíki Sör.
In answer to the question of MTI, András Lénárd, manager of Csíki Sör Manufaktúra said: talks between Heineken Romania and the Csíkszentsimon brewery already began on Thursday, and he sincerely hopes that the parties will be able to reach an agreement.
The Csíkszentsimon factory visit was also attended by the municipal board of Hódmezővásárhely which called for a boycott of Heineken products. Municipal councillor Gabriella Bálint, who spoke on behalf of the board, pointed out: they will not leave the Csík Szeklers alone in their fight against a multinational corporation.
Csaba Borboly, President of the Hargita County Municipality said: the Szekler product Igazi Csíki Sör has a registered trade mark, and Hargita County therefore has a contractual obligation to take action in defence of the brewery. The politician of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania took the view: the Hungarian community of 1.3 million in Transylvania represent a major force if „we always have by our side the Hungarian community of 13 million of the Carpathian Basin”.
At the press conference Mr Lázár told the press that he came to Szeklerland at the request of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, where during the course of the afternoon he will review the development plans of Hargita County with Csaba Borboly, and will later have talks with Árpád Antal, Mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy.
In its judgement dated 27 January, the Marosvásárhely court banned the production and distribution of Csíki Sör. The manufacturer of Igazi Csíki Sör was sued by Heineken Romania because it claimed that the maker of the beer misappropriated its intellectual property.
The lawsuit of Romanian beer manufacturers has linguistic implications. The court was required to assess whether the legal protection of the Romanian description of a product also extends to the Hungarian description of the product as used in common, colloquial language. The Dutch multinational company has had in its portfolio the beer brand Ciuc premium made in Csíkszereda – which the Hungarians in Transylvania refer to as „csíki sör” – since 2003. In November 2014, however, the product of Csíki Sör Manufaktúra, Igazi Csíki Sör, emerged on the market, for the purposes of which the manufacturer Lixid Project Kft. obtained legal protection in Romania and Europe.
(MTI)
