Chrysostomides Advocates & Legal Consultants

Our firm has successfully defended the trade mark rights which our clients “The Absolut Company Aktiebolag”, the leading international alcohol beverage company, have in the word “absolut”. Absolut Vodka is among the very best selling and best known alcohol beverage brands in the world.  In a trade mark opposition case fought before the Cyprus Registrar of Intellectual Property, our firm’s IP team has prevented the registration of the word “absolut” as part of the composite trademark “absolut pilates & fitness studio” filed by a third party.

Chrysostomides Advocates & Legal Consultants has advised on the USD 500 million Initial Public Offering of United Medical Group CY PLC, Russia’s leading multidisciplinary premium-class healthcare services provider operating under the European Medical Center brand, on the Moscow Stock Exchange. The secondary sale consisted of USD 500 million of GDRs sold by United Medical Group’s owners, including majority shareholders Igor Shilov, Egor Kulkov and Roman Abramovich.

In an article published earlier this year, we discussed how the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law, L.188(I)/2007 (the “AML Law”) was amended in order to harmonise domestic legislation with the 4th and 5th AML Directives (Directives (EU) 2015/849 and 2018/843 and how it introduced, for the first time, provision for the registration of Crypto-Asset Service Providers (“CASPS”). The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (“CYSEC”) was designated as the relevant competent supervisory authority and was given powers to regulate through the issue of Directives.

The Cyprus Eurasia Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Center (CEDRAC) was established to serve the needs of commercial parties involved in international disputes, and welcomes referrals of future or existing disputes. CEDRAC draws on the experience of diverse and experienced Court and case management staff, supporting and supervising its activities. The primary aim of CEDRAC is to assist international businesspeople to resolve their disputes through arbitration procedures that are fair, quick and cost-effective. In parallel to its arbitration services, CEDRAC also offers mediation services.

In Cyprus, the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law, L188(I)/2007 (the “AML Law”) was amended earlier this year through L13(I)/2021 (the “Amending Law”), in order to harmonise domestic legislation with the provisions of the 4th and 5th AML Directives (Directives (EU) 2015/849 and 2018/843).

It has been a long road for everyone’s favourite cheese. The protection of halloumi cheese should have never been complicated. The firm cheese which has the unique quality of retaining its shape even when fried or grilled, has its origins in the island of Cyprus where it has been produced for many centuries. Traditionally, halloumi is made from either sheep or goats’ milk or a mixture of the two, though in recent times industrial cheese producers began sometimes using cow’s milk. This traditional cheese has reached far and wide and has gained significant popularity globally in the past decades. With this success, however, came troubles regarding its collective European trademark which has been registered since 2000.

The Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the Protection of Persons Who Report Breaches of Union Law (EU Whistleblower Directive), hereinafter “the Directive”, was adopted on 23 October 2019 and has a transposition deadline of 17 December 2021 (with the exception of the obligation to establish internal reporting channels with a further two-year extended deadline), with the aim of ensuring a harmonised framework at national level, provided the current fragmentation in whistleblower protection across the EU. Currently, only about ten member states have a comprehensive legislative framework. In the case of Cyprus, at the time of writing, the Directive has not yet been transposed, but the Ministry of Justice and Public Order is in the process of drafting the relevant proposed bill. Nevertheless, Cyprus law does provide some piecemeal protection in the fields of the civil service, corruption and bribery offences, competition law, and termination of employment, without however any established reporting channels.

Pursuant to the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law (the “AML Law”), which transposes into national legislation the 4th EU AML Directive ((EU) 2015/849), companies and other legal entities must maintain and register, in a central public register to be created for this purpose, information on their beneficial owners.The AML Law provides that the particulars, the creation and operation of the relevant register, the process and entitlement to access thereto, shall be determined by separate regulations to be issued under the AML Law.

The long running battle between HALLOUMI and BBQloumi started in 2014, when a Bulgarian dairy company filed an application for the registration of a figurative mark containing the verbal element BBQloumi as a European trademark. This application was opposed by the Foundation for the Protection of the Traditional Cheese of Cyprus named Halloumi (hereafter the “Foundation”), on the basis of its earlier European collective trademark over HALLOUMI.