Geographical indications and traditional specialities in the European Union
Protection of the registered products is gradually expanded internationally via bilateral agreements between the EU and non-EU countries.
The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of the regional foods, promote rural and agricultural activity, help producers obtain a premium price for their authentic products, and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products,[3] which may be of inferior quality or of a different flavour.
The regulations still allow member states to use their own languages in packaging, but geographical indications law is still the sole domain of the EU.
A new EU Regulation on geographical indication protection for craft and industrial products was published on 27 October 2023 and entered into force on 16 November 2023.
Producers and manufacturers of these products will be able to file applications for GI protection with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) from 1 December 2025.
Within the European Union, enforcement measures vary: infringement may be treated as counterfeit, misleading advertising, passing off or even as a question of public health.
[citation needed] On 15 November 2011, the European Court of Auditors presented its report Do the design and management of the geographical indications scheme allow it to be effective?
The label "Traditional Specialities Guaranteed" (TSG) is a similar protected term which does not impose any restrictions on the geographical origin of the product.
It is currently governed by the Regulation on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs (No 510/2006).
It is judged by the Member State against the criteria in the Regulation and, if found to be acceptable, forwarded to the European Commission for final approval.
Applications are published at both the national and Community stages of examination, and third parties can object to proposed PDOs or PGIs which they feel would harm their business.
[citation needed] The protected designation of origin is the name of an area, a specific place or, in exceptional cases, the name of a country, used as a designation for an agricultural product or a foodstuff,[10] In other words, to receive the PDO status, the entire product must be traditionally and entirely manufactured (prepared, processed and produced) within the specific region and thus acquire unique properties.
[10] In other words, to receive the PGI status, the entire product must be traditionally and at least partially manufactured (prepared, processed or produced) within the specific region and thus acquire unique properties.
The TSG quality scheme aims to provide a protection regime for traditional food products of a specific character.
To qualify for a TSG a food must be of "specific character" and either its raw materials, production method or processing must be "traditional".
3 of the Directive to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trademarks (89/104/EEC);[5] however, marks which also serve to identify the quality of a product originating in a certain region may be registered so long as they have not become generic in the trade concerned.
Hence the Polish geographical designation "Herbal vodka from the North Podlasie Lowland aromatised with an extract of bison grass" (Polish: Wódka ziołowa z Niziny Północnopodlaskiej aromatyzowana ekstraktem z trawy żubrowej), so phrased as to avoid infringing the trademark "Żubrówka.
"[citation needed] The protection of geographical indications for wines and other alcoholic drinks was historically the first to be developed at both national and Community levels.
European Union rules governing the production of wine ("the product obtained exclusively from the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, whether or not crushed, or of grape must") are considerably longer than EU trade mark law: the main text, the Regulation on the common organisation of the market in wine (No 1493/1999),[6] runs to over 46,000 words.
Appellations are usually the geographical name of the area in which the wine is produced, although there are some historical exceptions: muscadet and blanquette in France, cava and manzanilla in Spain and vinho verde in Portugal.
The Regulation also defines a number of geographical designations, which are reserved for drinks which "acquired their character and definitive qualities" in the area denominated.
As of January 2020, the protected geographical designations are:[17] Article 13 of this legislation states that registered designations are protected against: ... any usurpation or imitation, even if the true origin of the product is indicated or if the appellation is used in translated form or accompanied by terms such as "kind", "type"...This legislation expanded the 1951 Stresa Convention, which was the first international agreement on cheese names.
[21] There is no automatic protection for these names on products both made and sold outside the EU, except for Northern Ireland, where the relevant regulation applies.
Geographical indications are (following an objection period where GIs can be refused) furthermore protected in the member states of the 2015 Geneva Act to the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, to which (apart from the EU and some of its member states) also Albania, Cambodia, Samoa, Laos and North Korea are parties.
Somewhat paradoxically the PGS framework can be posited as both a protectionist move against global agro-economic policy, and a market-based neoliberal tool of agricultural governance.
They disagree with the idea that Geographical Indications "eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers," but rather that many of these names have become generic, and do not reflect a reputation of a distinctive product originating in a certain region.
