DL Geographical Indications Flashcards
What is GI ?
is an important method of indicating the origin of goods and services.
What is the aim of GI?
is to promote commerce by informing the customer of the origin of the products. often this may imply a certain quality which the customer may be looking for.
For what kind of products it can be used ?
for industrial and agricultural producs
GI is it on national basis?
Most of time yes, but there are various international treaties that assist the protection in range of countries
What GI include?
- indication of source,
- appellation of origin
- GI (in strict sense)
what does it mean indication of source ?
any expression or sign used to indicate that a product or service originates in a country, a region, and a specific place where the product originated, e.g Made in Japan
What does it mean appellation of origin?
- means the geographical name of a country, region, specific place which are due exclusively or essentially to the geographical environment, including natural or human factors or both e.g Champagne.
What a geographical indication is?
GI is a notice stating that a given product originates in a given G area. e.g: Champagne is used to indicate that a special kind of sparking wine originates in the Champagne region of France. the same about Cognac.
What’s the difference between a Geographical indication and a Trademark?
A TM is a sig that an individual trader or company uses to distinguish its own goods or services from the goods or services of competitors.
A GI is used to show that certain products have a certain regional origin.
GI must be available for use by all the producers in that region.e.g: Bordeaux and Champagne can be used by all wines growers in the Bordeaux or Champagne, but only Moet n Chandon can call its champagne as a TR for its champagne
How do you protect geographical indications?
- it can be protected “sui generis” legislation or decrees (the system used in France and Portugal)
- to register of GI
- is to rely on the law agains unfair competition or the tort of “ passing off” (unfair trade practices should not be used) To use GI for a product that does not originate in the region named, would be a very good example of an unfair trade practice
- GI can also be protected by the registration of collective marks or certification marks. Unlike individual trademarks, collective marks belong to a group of traders or producers. A certification mark, on the other hand, doesn’t belong to anyone: it is registered on the understanding that anyone who meets the specified conditions is allowed to use it. For example, the use of the certification mark for Stilton cheese is restricted to certain farmers who comply with the rules that have to be observed for the use to be allowed.
Is it possible to get protection
worldwide?
In theory it is, but in practice it is very difficult. For TM and patens exist well established application procedures, but with GI is quite different. A distinction can usually be made between two situations, one bilateral and the other multilateral. n the bilateral context, one country enters into an agreement with another for the mutual protection of their geographical indications. The next stage is the exchange of lists of the geographical indications concerned, and protection is then granted on a reciprocal basis. For example, if France were to have a bilateral agreement with Spain, France would send its list of geographical indications to Spain
and Spain would send its list to France, whereupon the geographical indications of each country would be protected by the other.
What is the difference between appellations of origin and geographical
indications?
Appellations of origin are specific types of geographical indication. A geographical indication is a notice stating that a given product comes from a particular area. e.g: the expression “Made in Switzerland” is a geographical indication: the purchaser knows that the product has come from there. An appellation of origin is a more precise geographical indication which specifies that the product in question has certain qualities and that those qualities are due essentially or exclusively to its place of origin. The underlying idea is that certain products owe their special qualities to the place that they come from. This is very common with agricultural products such as Roquefort cheese. The people who make Roquefort, say it tastes the way it does because it is matured in the caves of the Roquefort region. And it is only because it is matured in that special place that it eventually acquires the taste for which it is famous.
Original Champagne example, would it be an appellation of origin or a
geographical indication?
It would be both. Geographical indication is the broader term, however. To put it in another way, all appellations of origin are geographical indications, but not all geographical indications are appellations of origin.
Explain International protection system?
Well in fact there are several, including a very general one provided for in the Paris Convention, which says that geographical indications must be protected against any unauthorized use that is misleading. For appellations of origin there is a special Agreement, administered by WIPO, known as the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration. This international Agreement provides an international registration system for appellations of origin. A country that operates a national system for the protection of appellations of origin can apply for international registration of a given appellation of origin, which is then communicated to the other States party to the Agreement. This arrangement works very well, but owing to the limited number of States that have national systems for appellations of origin, its geographical scope is limited to the 20 States that are party to it.
There is now another international agreement, the TRIPS Agreement, which is an integral part of the WTO system. This Agreement requires that all Members of the World Trade Organization protect geographical indications, if their unauthorized use would be misleading or would constitute an act of unfair competition. The TRIPS Agreement provides for a somewhat higher degree of protection for geographical indications in the case of wines and spirits, as the geographical indications for such products have to be protected even in the absence of confusion or unfair competition.
However, this broader protection is subject to certain exceptions for geographical indications that have been in use for a long time, or are used in good faith.
What treaties protect GI?
Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration
