Ramkarran strikes gold with “Demerara Gold”

Ralph Ramkarran

Earlier this month, without any fanfare, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) quietly announced on its website “closure” on a case it had brought in the courts of the United States and Canada against Bedessee Limited for selling brown sugar sourced from Mauritius and branding it as “Demerara Gold”.

As part of its diversification efforts to add value to its sugar, GuySuCo started to package and sell locally produced brown sugar in 2003. But by the middle of the decade, as it expanded to the US and Canada where there are large Guyanese populations constituting an almost “captive market”, it came up against the identical Bedessee brand. At that time, Guyana could have proceeded to file a “Geographical Indications” claim with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to secure exclusive usage of the “Demerara” label for its brown sugar, as was advised by some politicians.

Under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the “Geographical Indications” rule – accepted by the WTO – any product which has been traditionally related and sourced from a particular geographical region of a country can obtain exclusive right over the name. For instance, “Parma” ham or “Champagne” cannot be labelled as such even if the identical product is produced elsewhere, as in say California. The firm of Cameron and Shepherd, headed  by then Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran, but more pertinently, member of the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Executive Committee (Ex-Co) persuaded Cabinet that it should not proceed along this path – even though the Regional Negotiating Mechanism (RNM) was prepared to proceed.

All that would have to be done was for some local laws to be drafted to legalise the designation and then the RNM would file with the WTO. Ramkarran argued that the Government should proceed on the line of claiming “trademark” infringement for the “Demerara Gold” label even though Bedessee had been using the name before GuySuCo. And since the beginning of the century, Mauritius and South Africa had been shipping brown sugar as “Demerara Sugar” and the name had become almost generic.  Then Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud proceeded to file legal proceedings against Bedessee in 2009 and the matter was reported in the local press and their North American editions. At that time, serious concerns were raised about legal costs for the action that would be incurred – which would have to be fought both in the US and Canada since Bedessee had filed a defamation suit for some statements made by the subject Minister.

Sugar workers bundling cane

As the lawyers for GuySuCo, Cameron and Shepherd fought the case in the local courts as the associate for the Washington and Canadian law firms. Locally, the law firm of Hughes, Fields and Stoby represented Bedessee. Then GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Errol Hanoman declined to comment on the actual quantum of the charges by the law firms, but noted that Washington-based lawyers “did not come cheap”.  He suggested that reporters contact the local affiliate Cameron and Shepherd, run by Ramkarran.

A spokesman for the firm was reported to vouch that “top lawyers” of the quality of the Washington firm would bill at a rate of US$1500 ($300,000) per hour. Local lawyers pointed out that even though the Washington firm would make the billing, since much of the tedious work of research among other things would be done locally, Ramkarran’s local firm would collect the bulk of the billings.

A year later, it was announced that GuySuCo was unsuccessful in its bid to secure its “trademark” infringement bid. Bedessee was also successful in its suit against Persaud for his intemperate language. Damages had to be paid to Bedessee.

A sugar worker cutting cane

With GuySuCo now announcing the end of its suit and that it accepted that Bedessee had sole trademark rights over the “Demerara Gold” brand for brown sugar, the case is no longer sub judice. In the words of one legal luminary, Guyana has “lost sugar and husk”.  But not so for Ramkarran, who had advised this Quixotic path – his firm collected the bulk of the $520 million paid out in legal fees to the Washington firm.

The Guyana Times has been unable to ascertain the amount paid to the Canadian firm, which would be shared with Cameron and Shepherd also. Legal practitioners say it would be slightly less than the US legal billings – somewhere in the vicinity of $500 million. In the meantime, field, factory and office workers of GuySuCo are all up in arms over their poor rates of pay, and they have had to resort to strike action in several instances. They refuse to accept the excuse that “the Corporation isn’t making profits” when exorbitant legal fees, such as the above, are paid immediately.