EU recognises Protected Geographical Indications for craft and industrial products
On 27 October 2023, EU Regulation 2023/2411 on the "protection of Geographical Indications for craft and industrial products" was published, which harmonises the different national regulations previously issued by Member States.
Due to the Regulation coming into effect, craft and industrial products - e.g. Murano glass - that originate in a defined area, whose quality or reputation is essentially attributable to their geographical origin, with at least one of the production steps of the product taking place in the defined geographical area, will enjoy EU protection for geographical indications, which until now has been limited to the agri-food sector.
The application for registration of the new PGIs may be submitted by a producers’ group (and in specific cases also by individual producers) or by a local or regional authority. The registration is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the domestic stage, the authority designated by the Member State will examine the application for compliance with the requirements of the product specification. If it deems that the requirements of the Regulation are not satisfied, the application for registration will be rejected; otherwise, the application will be published with the option for third parties to object to the registration within two months.
If the opposition is submitted and considered admissible, the authority will attempt to amicably settle the dispute, and if the settlement fails, it will decide on the opposition.
If the opposition is successful, the application will be rejected. If no opposition is submitted or the opposition is rejected, the second phase, the European stage, will begin: the national authority will submit the application to the EUIPO, before which it will again be possible to submit an opposition. At the conclusion of this second phase, the Office will then decide whether or not to register the name as a geographical indication.
PGI protection will extend to protect a wide range of conducts:
i) any direct or indirect commercial use of the PGI for products that are not the subject of registration, if they are comparable to the registered products or if the use of the name exploits, weakens, debases or damages the reputation of the PGI
ii) any usurpation, imitation or evocation of the name protected as a geographical indication, in particular where, in the eyes of the average, normally informed and reasonably observant and circumspect consumer, a sufficiently direct and clear link is created with the product covered by the registered geographical indication, even where the true origin of the products or services is indicated;
iii) any use of translations of the PGI or use of the PGI accompanied by expressions such as 'kind', 'type', 'method', 'manner', 'imitation', 'flavour', 'fragrance', 'like' or similar;
iv) in general, any other false or misleading indication as to the provenance, origin, nature or essential characteristics of the product used on the packaging or wrapping, in advertising materials, in documents or in information provided on online interfaces relating to the product, and any other practice that could mislead the consumer as to the true origin of the product.
