The “Taste of the Ukrainian Carpathians” Trademark
The objective of this component of the project is to successfully establish a trademark with the name “Taste of the Ukrainian Carpathians” to promote regional food products from the Ukrainian Carpathians. The aim is to develop a labelling system and carry out complementary promotion and support activities in order to benefit food producers and processors from the region and the wider economy.

An Association (Public Union) called “Carpathian Taste” (http://drsu.gov.ua/show/11254) was registered with the Kolomyia District and City Registration Service (part of the Department of Justice of the Ivano-Frankivsk Region) on November 18th 2013. The Association owns the “Taste of the Ukrainian Carpathians” trademark, which was registered as an Individual Mark of Goods and Services on April 10th 2014 by the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine (http://sips.gov.ua/en/index.html). The trademark certificate can be found here (http://www.tuca.com.ua/images/pdf/5.pdf).

This trademark will serve as an umbrella brand and can be used by producers and processors who are members of the Association. Products sold under this label will originate from the Ukrainian Carpathians (the oblasts of Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Zarkarpattia) and will conform to certain quality requirements that have been defined by technical standards.

This labelling system will provide consumers with assurance about the provenance and quality of all the products within the scheme and raise the region’s profile. It will also drive quality improvements in production, storage and packaging, and enhance the competitiveness of participating companies through improving their products’ value, reputation and market access. An additional benefit of this labelling system is that it will allow retailers to more easily identify and access quality products from the Ukrainian Carpathians, and to differentiate them visually at sales points, promoting both products and their own image.

The SECO project facilitated the foundation of the ‘Carpathian Taste’ Association (conducting meetings and organising working groups with stakeholders) and helped with the legal issues regarding the trademark’s registration. In addition to providing technical support (elaborating the technical standard of the trademark ‘Taste of the Ukrainian Carpathians’) and marketing expertise, it is also supporting the establishment of an internal control system and the management of the trademark (see PMCA Approach ). SECO also supports promotional activities of the association.

For further information www.tuca.com.ua