Lawsuit of the Day

Lawsuit of the Day: Lebanon v. Israel

By  
on

In a sign of immense progress towards the peaceful resolution of differences in the Middle East, the Industrialists Association of Lebanon is contemplating filing an international lawsuit against Israel for violating a food copyright:

The Lebanese claim is that Israel markets original Lebanese food like tabouleh, kubbeh, hummus, falafel and fattoush which the Lebanese considered their trademarks prior to the establishment of the Jewish state.

I’m no Talmudic scholar, but I’d imagine the original copyright holder is He who is called I Am.

Shockingly, the Lebanese Industrialists might have precedent on their side:

France, Denmark and Germany asserted that Greece cannot have a monopoly over the production of [feta] cheese. Greece managed to prove in international institutions that it is the cheese’s “originator” and won the case.

Until that point, the three prosecuting countries produced 12,000 tons of cheese a year.

The court ruled that from then on, other countries could not use the name “feta”, as this cheese is “largely associated with Greece’s history and has been produced under this name for 6,000 years.”

Thus, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs decided to grant Greece the sole right to produce and market the cheese under that name.

And you wonder why the international community cannot react rationally to the current financial crisis.

An international legal battle between Lebanon and Israel over hummus is still so much better than the usual conflict resolution between those two countries. Yay progress.

Sponsored

Lebanon: Israel stole our falafel [Ynet News]

Sponsored

Topics