| The iPhone will be golden in colour but it might be called a light shade of champagne. Charles Goamaere, legal director for the Inter-professional Committee for Champagne (CIVC), the trade group which is among the biggest defenders of the Champagne brand believes that any company wanting to use the name ‘Champagne’ would be doing so to attract all the benefits that surround the label. “We can’t say that a ‘champagne’ colour exists,” said Goamaere, according to the report by Washington Post.
According to the GI laws applicable in most countries, champagne is the sparkling wine produced only in Champagne under specified rules and the bubbly produced outside the region, even in France, may not be called Champagne. The protection evidently extends beyond the wine industry. In 1987, CIVC sued Perrier for marketing one of its products as “The champagne of mineral waters.” Other suits include a 1993 case targeting a perfume from Yves Saint Laurent and, more recently in 2002, a champagne-flavored yogurt from Sweden.
In India, Champagne Indage was forced to change its name to Indage Vintners. Sula brought out its bubbly as Champagne but soon changed it to ‘Brut’. The ambitions of Zampa to name its sparkling wine as Zampagne were cut short by apparent threats of legal action even though the labels had reportedly been printed.
Apple is being tight-lipped about the new iPhone color, as is usual. But it has a history of stomping on other brands and in many ways resembles CIVC in protecting its rights. There is the well known case where music from The Beatles was unavailable from the iTunes Store for years, due to a longstanding dispute between the company and the record label, Apple Records. Last year, Apple paid a Chinese company $60 million to settle a suit regarding the sale of iPad brand in China.
 Champagne Cassis Tea
The Leaf Tea Room in Liverpool in UK has been named one of the Top Ten tea rooms in Britain by Yahoo.com and Visit Britain. It is known for its 24 loose leaf varieties some of which are quite exotic. One such blend I tasted, is called Champagne Cassis blend which is low caffeine white tea sprinkled with Champagne flavour and Cassis. The gift box packing of 50gms tea that costs a princely sum of £9, certainly puts it in the category of Champagne in terms of pricing.
The aromas are highly perfumed and the flavours have distinct peachy notes. A very pleasant after-taste left in the mouth makes it a healthy drink even if the Champagne flavour is rather subtle. For details click http://www.thisisleaf.co.uk
Subhash Arora
Tags: Apple, Champagne, iPhone, Charles Goamaere, CIVC, Liverpool, Champagne Cassis |