The dispute over who held the rights to use the word “rooibos” when labelling rooibos tea and other related products ended this week with an agreement that worldwide registration of the name will be cancelled. In terms of the settlement, worldwide registration of the word “rooibos” would be cancelled and the name would be regarded as generic — without a brand name. YAY!!! This is great new for South African rooibos farmers and exporters.

Background info on the lawsuit:

This has been going on for years. It all started when an American firm, Burke International, said it acquired a trademark giving it exclusive rights to use the word “rooibos” and to import the increasingly popular tea into the U.S. But South African farmers said rooibos (meaning “red bush” in Afrikaans) is a generic name for an indigenous medicinal plant (Aspalanthus linearis) unique to the country’s Western Cape region.

The plant is believed to have been first introduced to botanists in 1772 by the Khoi people of the Western Cape. Proclaimed worldwide for its health properties, indigenous to and only found in the Western Cape mountains of Wupperthal and the Cederberg, it’s name is derived from the colour the tea cuttings take during a process of oxidation brought on by mechanical bruising.

Rooibos growers also argued that the name is a national asset which could by law not be registered by an individual or company and they called on the government to halt its export to the United States.

The CEO of Burke International insisted that South African companies which exported the tea and its by-products under the name rooibos were in direct conflict with Burke International’s trademark. Burke International threatened to block exports by other South African companies who try to use the name saying, “They can call it Blue Tea, Aspalanthus Linearis or anything else. I don’t care, as long as it is not rooibos.”

John Mann, a representative of rooibos farmers in Wuppertal said, “The word rooibos is as South African as the words biltong, braaivleis and rugby.” But sadly you mostly see SA exported rooibos tea marked as “redbush tea”, so as to avoid costly lawsuits with Burke International which the smaller companies couldn’t afford. After years of wrangling and pressure from Burke International South Africa agreed it would phase out its use of the name “rooibos” within five years in its export market and 12 years locally, even though South Africa’s Khoi Khoi and San people discovered and began using the caffeine-free tea hundreds of years ago.

In recent years rooibos tea has become as popular as South African wines in the international market. Of South African tea exports to the United States amounting to R160-million, rooibos alone is worth R120-million. About 40 percent of the rooibos region’s produce is exported to Germany which together with Japan forms the fastest growing foreign markets for rooibos.

I know someone who is probably thinking around about now, “Hmm. I think I know everything about rooibos and I know how yummy it tastes. But I wonder what it actually looks like…” well here it is.