The European geographical indications scheme aims to protect the names of products whose characteristics are associated with the geographical area in which they are produced, and provides a potential economic opportunity for farmers and food producers. This report examines whether the scheme's control system is robust, and whether the scheme is attractive to producers and known to consumers. The audit concludes that clarification is needed on a number of issues concerning the scheme's control system, especially checks of product specifications and disallowed practices, and that a clear strategy is lacking to raise the awareness of both producers and consumers.
"The European geographical indications scheme aims to protect the names of products whose characteristics are associated with the geographical area in which they are produced, and provides a potential economic opportunity for farmers and food producers. This report examines whether the scheme's control system is robust, and whether the scheme is attractive to producers and known to consumers. The audit concludes that clarification is needed on a number of issues concerning the scheme's control system, especially checks of product specifications and disallowed practices, and that a clear strategy is lacking to raise the awareness of both producers and consumers." -- P. [4] of cover.
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.
In an increasingly globalised world, place and provenance matter like never before. The law relating to Geographical Indications (GIs) regulates designations which signal this provenance. While Champagne, Prosciutto di Parma, Café de Colombia and Darjeeling are familiar designations, the relevant legal regimes have existed at the margins for over a century. In recent years, a critical mass of scholarship has emerged and this book celebrates its coming of age. Its objective is to facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation, by providing sure-footed guidance across contested terrain as well as enabling future avenues of enquiry to emerge. The distinctive feature of this volume is that it reflects a multi-disciplinary conversation between legal scholars, policy makers, legal practitioners, historians, geographers, sociologists, economists and anthropologists. Experienced contributors from across these domains have thematically explored: (1) the history and conceptual underpinnings of the GI as a legal category; (2) the effectiveness of international protection regimes; (3) the practical operation of domestic protection systems; and (4) long-unresolved as well as emerging critical issues. Specific topics include a detailed interrogation of the history and functions of terroir; the present state as well as future potential of international GI protection, including the Lisbon Agreement, 2015; conflicts between trade marks and GIs; the potential for GIs to contribute to rural or territorial development as well as sustain traditional or Indigenous knowledge; and the vexed question of generic use. This book is therefore intended for all those with an interest in GIs across a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Students, scholars, policy makers and practitioners will find this Handbook to be an invaluable resource.
This book explores the potential benefits and disadvantages of geographical indication (GIs) registration schemes, analyzing the utility of GI registrations for the development and promotion of regional economies, both in national and international markets. The book draws on the van Caenegem, Cleary & Drahos Australian Provenance Report, along with the valuable empirical data collected in connection with it. The book situates the rural development question in an international context, presenting several case studies from Italy, France and Morocco, New Zealand and Australia. The book contains various chapters focused on comparing regulatory structures in various relevant jurisdictions and drawing on other countries’ experiences. It contains significant contributions from industry actors with extensive experience in regional branding initiatives and GI-related policy issues. Progressive in structure, the book starts from the ‘big picture’ level before moving down to the local and concrete scale. Geographical indications of Australian products are vital both in domestic and overseas markets by accurately representing the origin and quality of niche agricultural products. Thus, with a particular focus on Australia, the book promotes the assessment of geographical indications as potential regional assets that will help producers develop local quality indicators that will serve as public goods for successive generations of producers.
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.
Forty-ninth report of Session 2010-12 : Documents considered by the Committee on 14 December 2011, including the following recommendation for debate, Safety of offshore oil and gas activities, draft Protocols to the EU Treaties concerning Ireland and the
The European Union (EU) has a compliance problem: there are persistent failures in the implementation of EU rules and policies by the member states. This book examines how policy implementation may be improved. It explains the nature of policy mistakes, proceeds to consider how individual public authorities and organizations can avoid making policy mistakes and then, in the light of its findings, derives how the EU may induce its member states and their public authorities to improve their compliance with EU rules and policies. Basically, this is a book about how the right incentives at national level can improve institutional performance and contribute towards more effective application of EU rules across member states without having to confer new competences to the EU. Its premise is that strengthening the capacity of organizations to learn should not only lead to better performance, but should also stimulate useful policy experimentation across the EU. Although this volume focuses on the obligations of EU membership and how to strengthen compliance, the proposed solutions have broader applicability. Improved organizational capacity for policy implementation will also be beneficial in those areas where the EU has no formal competence. Just as member states can learn from each other, so can policy officials in different policy fields. Good practices can spread.
The appearance of the domestic pig today is shaped mainly by the economic expectations of us, humans. Today’s pig has superior reproductive, fattening, and carcass traits compared to its ancient ancestors. This could not be achieved without the highly effective support of scientific research aimed at revealing the genetic basis underlying the important economic traits of pigs and the involvement of novel technologies in phenotyping these animals, both in vivo and post-mortem. Yet the research is spreading beyond the biological issues connected to the production of pigs and their products. The latest developments in computer science and informatics technology enable us to collect and store information from all stages in the production of food, leading back to its origin. Questions about the breed, the way the pigs were raised, how were they managed, and how they were processed into a wide palette of products can be answered by the use of methodologies developed by data scientists and those from the fields of different “omics.” All this information can be passed along the chain to consumers in a repeatable manner. The producers can use these data to manage such complex issues as meat or product quality. And this closes the circle. Tracing the domestic pig is an attempt to present the current knowledge about this valuable animal—its origin, composition, and the food that it gives us—and to predict or foresee what can happen to this species in the time to come.
Geographical indications represent a powerful way to foster sustainable food systems through territorial approaches and market linkages, especially for small-scale actors. In this perspective, and following the FAO publication methodologies of the origin-linked virtuous circle, local actors need to well define their geographical indication (GI) system and, more specifically, the product specifications as well as monitor and evaluate the impacts and readjust the system as necessary for the reproduction of local resources. These guidelines aim at providing a detailed and stepwise approach with specific tools to help practitioners in establishing their framework in relation with their objectives and local conditions, to help both the qualification though a prospective evaluation, and the reproduction of local resources though retrospective evaluation.
