ARTICLE · 21 JANUARY 2026

A Salty Lesson: Afrormosia Commodities Vs. Sun Salt Services

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Sun Salt owns the registered trade mark SUN for salt (registration no. 1992/01261). It has provided salt and related products for industrial, agricultural and household purposes...

South AfricaIntellectual Property

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Background

Sun Salt owns the registered trade mark SUN for salt (registration no. 1992/01261). It has provided salt and related products for industrial, agricultural and household purposes under the SUN mark in South Africa for decades. Afrormosia also produces salt and used the unregistered mark ROYAL SUN on its salt products. Sun Salt sued for infringement and won. Afrormosia appealed.

Legal Dispute

On appeal, the central issue was whether ROYAL SUN, used for salt, was confusingly similar to SUN.

Afrormosia argued that ROYAL SUN looks and feels different: two words vs. one, with ROYAL said to dominate, accompanied by crown and eclipse imagery, and different packaging. It stressed that "sun" is widely used in commerce, while "royal" is fanciful for salt.

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