The Hamé Company, one of the leading Czech foodstuff producers, present in more than 35 countries worldwide, has recently won the legal dispute concerning use of the Májka brand in the Slovak Republic.

One of the cases of violating the Májka registered trademark is unfair competitive conduct of the R.S.K. company from Rimavská Sobota in the Slovak Republic, which introduced a product under the name of Májka - RISO in the Slovak market. The dispute lasting almost 5 years was decided by the regional Court in Banská Bystrica in favour of Hamé and ordered R.S.K. to stop using the confusing title - Májka - RISO, for the same or similar products, for which the Májka international trademark has been registered by Hamé. Moreover the court ordered discontinuation of sale of the product under the name of Májka - RISO and decided on imposing a fine of SK 200 thousand and a public apology in national periodicals for violating the rights of Hamé.

Hamé has been paying considerable attention to the Májka brand since the mid 90s and during its long existence it has encountered a number of cases where competitors wanted to make use of some of the Hamé registered trademarks for their benefit. The most renowned brand that is often a target of piracy in the Czech Republic is most usually MÁJKA - "Queen of Pates". In the Slovak Republic apart from Májka, the Pali and Morcadela brands are often targets of imitation, too. This is substantiated by more than 30 cases of Hamé trademark violations.

The Májka trademark is an important Hamé brand, into which the company invests considerable sums every year. In the last 5 years more than CZK 125 million has been spent on the media promotion and 60 million on other activities supporting awareness of this brand in the market. Hamé sells Májka pate in the Czech and Slovak markets in various packaging, in preserved and chilled versions and their sale exceeds 80 million items.

Hamé estimates the loss arising from violation of their trademarks at dozens of millions of crowns. The greatest problem is the extremely slow settlement of legal disputes. This is manifested by the current case of the Májka trademark violation by R.S.K. that lasted almost 5 years.

Since the beginning of its existence in the foodstuff market Hamé has realised the commercial and economic importance of brands and trademarks and purposefully has been investing in these areas, both in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, but also other countries where it is economically active. These countries include particularly EU states and Russian speaking countries.

Annually Hamé spends approx. 1.5 million crowns on its trademark database, and this portfolio containing almost 210 trademarks for the CZ and SK and around thirty international trademarks is constantly growing.