Ishikawa Prefecture (northeast of Kyoto) took fourteen years to develop extremely highly rated grapes, and is in a tough battle to keep the variety “Ruby Roman” for itself abroad. It took fourteen years to develop the variety, with very large, very sweet, reddish grapes. In July this year, a Taiwanese supermarket won the auction for one of the top two clusters of the year, for JPY 1.4 million (about US$12,800)![1]
Ishikawa Prefecture did register a trademark for Ruby Roman in Japan, and Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has also registered the variety for protection against illicit exports.[2] Nevertheless, the Japanese media claims that Ruby Roman grapes are for sale in the Republic of Korea—where none have been exported. To add insult to injury, someone apparently has already registered Korean trademarks for “Ruby Roman.”[1]
Now, Ishikawa is serious about the risks and is seeking trademarks for the Ruby Roman in over forty countries where wealthy buyers live, but is ruing the delays in the Korean market, and awaiting calming of COVID-19 before it looks further into the allegedly unapproved grapes in Korea.[3] Japanese have been irked at Korean use of Japan-produced plant varieties before. We are not very hopeful for quick resolution of this issue.
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Contact: Taro Yaguchi
Sources
[1] The Japan Agricultural News. “日本産ブランド 海外の模倣農産物防げ [Brands for ‘Made in Japan’; prevent fake foreign agricultural products].” https://www.agrinews.co.jp/opinion/index/27170 Opinion. September 22, 2021. Accessed September 23, 2021.
[2] Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.“ https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/syubyouhou/attach/pdf/index-4.pdf Updated September 2, 2021. Accessed September 23, 2021.
[3] ルビーロマン海外で商標 流出防止で県台湾などで取得へ [Trademarks for Ruby Roman abroad; {Ishikawa} Prefecture applies in Taiwan, elsewhere].” https://www.hokkoku.co.jp/articles/-/527149 The Hokkoku Shimbun. September 16, 2021. Accessed September 23, 2021.
Image by Couleur from Pixabay (apologies, these are not Ruby Romans. You can see those here.)
