User:Dsokal/Peace Oil (USA)

“Peace Oil,” sold in the United Kingdom by Charities Advisory Trust, describes its product as, “produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together.”[1] As was revealed only after extensive public pressure, Peace Oil is produced on an Israeli farm owned by a Jewish farmer who hires Arab and Bedouin workers, and presses his oil in a Druze owned press.[2] Palestinians and their supporters in the UK have publicly criticized Charity Advisory Trust stating that in a land where historical conflict has pitted Israelis against Arabs and Bedouin, creating a picture of collaboration is a dramatic statement. A relationship between an employer and hired labor is not the same as collaboration between equals.

One of the Palestinian critics, Zaytoun, is a cooperative that sells Palestinian olive oil in the UK. They challenged CAT director, Hilary Blume, to promote their product to show her support for Palestinian farmers.

Hilary Blume replied in an interview in the Guardian:

“You can find Zaytoun in every church group in the country," Blume said. "If they can't market it effectively, it's their problem.”[3]

Peace Oil marketed by Olive Branch Enterprises (OBE), based in Seattle, Washington provides an illustrative comparison to the UK product. On its website, http://www.peaceoil.net, it goes to great lengths to promote and describe in detail its olive oil suppliers. One of the suppliers is Canaan Fair Trade, also a main supplier of Zaytoun. The other two are Israeli groups that work with Palestinian farmers. Green Action - SAHA Fair Trade works with West Bank Palestinian farmers in small village cooperatives in the Salfit area near Nablus. Sindyanna of Galilee buys from Palestinian farmers living within the green line.

Both the UK and Seattle versions of Peace Oil ended up using the same name by coincidence and possibly due to knowledge of an idea first floated in January 2005 by the Israeli and Palestinian Olive Boards.[4] These boards announced to the media the idea of combining Israeli and Palestinian olive oil and branding it as Peace Oil at that time. Charities Advisory Trust filed an application for registration of the term, Peace Oil, with the UK patent office in September 2005[5].

Olive Branch Enterprises, the producer of Peace Oil based in Seattle, started development of its Peace Oil in January of 2006. David Sokal, owner/operator of Olive Branch Enterprises, did not know about the UK Peace Oil until he came across their web site in October of 2006, about a month after he had already begun distribution in the US. Concerned about the use of the term “Peace Oil,” David filed an application for registration of trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office in November of 2006.[6] By August of 2007, the registration with the USPTO was completed.

Peace Oil UK started distribution in the UK in November 2006. Starting in 2007, controversy over the UK Peace Oil began to erupt.

Footnotes:

[1] http://www.peaceoil.org/

[2] www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/ … ethicalshopping: “Peace Oil is produced … in Israel, on 400 acres of land farmed by Amos Strauss, a Jewish farmer. He has four staff (18 in the high season), all of whom are Arab or Bedouin … The olives are pressed at a Druze press owned by a local sheikh.”

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/dec/07/israel#history-byline

[4] http://www.foodprocessing.com/industrynews/2005/183.html

[5] http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-text/ (enter the words "Peace" and "Oil" in the text search fields)

[6] http://www.uspto.gov/web/trademarks/workflow/start.htm (Click on "TESS" in the 4th paragraph, select "New User Form Search (Basic)", enter the phrase "Peace Oil" in the Search Term field.)