Relocating The Law Of Geographical Indications

There is considerable variation in the nature, scope and institutional forms of legal protection for valuable geographical brands such as Champagne, Colombian coffee and Darjeeling tea. While regional products are increasingly important for producers, consumers and policy makers, the international legal regime under the TRIPS Agreement remains unclear. Adopting a historical approach, Dev Gangjee explores the rules regulating these valuable geographical designations within international intellectual property law. He traces the emergence of geographical indications as a distinct category while investigating the key distinguishing feature of the link between regional products and their places of origin. The research addresses long-standing puzzles, such as the multiplicity of regimes operating in this area; the recognition of the link between product and place and its current articulation in the TRIPS definition; the varying scope of protection; and the extent to which geographical indications ought to be treated as a category distinct from trade marks.

Dev Gangjee considers the international legal rules which determine the protection of geographical brands such as Champagne.

Dev Gangjee considers the international legal rules which determine the protection of geographical brands such as Champagne.

Linking traditional and local products to a specific area is increasingly felt as a necessity in a globalised market, and Geographical Indications (GIs) are emerging as a multifunctional tool capable of performing this and many other functions. This book analyses the evolving nature of EU sui generis GIs by focusing on their key element, the origin link, and concludes that the history of the product in the broad sense has become a major factor to prove the link between a good and a specific place. For the first time, this area of Intellectual Property Law is investigated from three different, although interrelated, perspectives: the history and comparative assessment of the systems of protection of Indications of Geographical Origin adopted in the European jurisdictions from the beginning of the 20th century; the empirical analysis of the trends emerging from the practice of EUGIs; and the policy debates surrounding them and their importance for the fulfilment of the general goals of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The result is an innovative and rounded analysis of the very nature of the EU Law of GIs that, starting from its past, investigates the present and the likely future of this Intellectual Property Right. This book provides an interesting and innovative contribution to the field and will be of interest to GI scholars and Intellectual Property students, as well as anyone willing to gain a better understanding of this compelling area of law.

Encapsulating the most recent changes in the law, this second edition of The Protection of Geographical Indications investigates the European laws which regulate the way that geographical indications can be used in the marketing of agricultural products, food, wines and spirits. Key updates to this comprehensive second edition include two new chapters exploring the impact of Brexit and considering the protection of EU geographical indications outside Europe and of foreign geographical indications within the EU.

The present book examines both theoretical and practical aspects of the law on indications of geographical origin (IGOs) within the framework of European Union (EU) law, pursuing four distinct yet mutually related aims. First, it discusses theoretical issues of the law on IGOs including its historical foundations, terminology, principles of regulation, legal subjectivity, protection models and loss of protection. Second, it covers the EU law on IGOs from a systematic point of view. Particularly, the systematic review of the EU law on IGOs includes an in-depth analysis of and commentary on the relevant and applicable regulations. Third, it examines current legislative initiatives and further development options for the EU law on IGOs. Finally, it reveals the interrelation of the EU law on one hand and the national laws of EU Member States on the other with regard to IGOs, focusing on harmonized and non-harmonized areas of law.

This volume focuses on the procedures for determining the geographical indicator labels for globally traded goods in the Asia-Pacific region. The book is also available as Open Access.

For some time now, there has been conflict concerning the role in the global marketplace of certain agricultural or handcrafted products of specific geographical origin: whether they should come under trademark law (as favoured by common law countries such as the United States) or under the geographical indications (GI) system developed in France and subsequently promoted by the European Union (EU). At this moment, China is in the eye of the storm. Taking fully into account the legislative and judicial gaps in China’s compromised embrace of the GI concept, this book shows how the Chinese case brings to prominence fundamental issues relating to the functional dissimilarity between trademarks and GIs, the treatment of the terroir concept, the role of GIs in rural development, and the challenges of adopting the French and European model in other countries, especially in East Asia. Providing detailed information on how GIs are registered, protected, and managed in China, France, and the EU, the book includes such practical analysis as the following: comparison between the Chinese and European GI systems to highlight differences in essential elements for GI registration and protection; mistakes and errors arising from forcing the GI function into trademark law; the increasingly larger scope of EU GI protection, protection of collective marks containing GIs, and the extension of GI protection to handicrafts; who is responsible for the protection of each registered name and who can sue for infringement; and legislative options for future GI protection in China. Recognizing not only that GIs protect consumers against fraud and producers against unfair competition but also that the goals include the preservation of rural development, cultural heritage, and traditional knowledge, as well as environmental and ecological protection, this book provides a comprehensive reference on legal tools available for policymakers, legal practitioners, researchers, and local producers concerned with GI or trademark issues in China, France, or the EU. It will prove greatly helpful to corporate lawyers filing international registration applications and taking legal action. It will also be of inestimable value to officials in a variety of countries that are considering developing or improving systems to enhance the value of terroir products, and to academics interested in intellectual property law, trademark law, agriculture policy, GI legislation, or World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.