Geographical Indications: From Darjeeling to Doha

• Author: EM
• Position: WIPO Magazine Editorial Staff, Communications and Public Outreach Division

This is the first in a new series of WIPO Magazine articles on geographical indications (GIs), responding to readers' requests for greater coverage of GI-related topics. In this article we report on some of the issues covered at the 2007 International Symposium on Geographical Indications in Beijing, and on China's strategic use of GIs to promote a range of speciality products. In the next editions of the Magazine, following up on some of these themes, we will compare the paths followed by coffee growers in Colombia and in Ethiopia; we will track South Africa's progress in protecting its Rooibos tea; and we will take a fresh look at the Lisbon System for the protection of appellations of origin.

Sleeping Beauty

"You could say that geographical indications are the Sleeping Beauty of the intellectual property world," suggested WIPO lawyer Marcus Höpperger at the start of the Beijing Symposium. Indeed, while GIs have been around for a long time, there has been a widespread awakening in recent years as to their business value. But if Sleeping Beauty is already up and dancing in many national jurisdictions, at the international level governments are still picking their way through the surrounding thicket.

WIPO's biennial international symposia on GIs seek to illuminate some of the thornier issues by bringing together representatives of national administrations, producers of GI products, and other specialists, for an open exchange of views. At the packed 2007 Symposium in June, which was jointly organized by WIPO and China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), 24 speakers from 14 countries and five continents, plus experts from WIPO and the World Trade Organization (WTO), offered detailed insights with the objective of contributing constructively to the ongoing debates.

The basic concept underlying GIs is delightfully simple, and is familiar to any shopper who chooses Roquefort over blue cheese or Basmati rice over boil-in-the-bag. But when it comes to their legal protection, the picture becomes complex. GIs are protected through a wide variety of different approaches in different countries, and often by a combination of two or more approaches. These include unfair competition laws (passing off), consumer protection acts, agricultural quality control regimes, laws governing trademarks, collective marks and certification marks, and registration under specific, sui generis GI laws. There is no agreement as to the "best" methods to promote and protect GIs, and WIPO supports individual Member States in whatever national system they adopt, within the applicable international legal framework.

Untangling the Terminology

What is a geographical indication? Put simply, and as used in this article, it is a sign used on goods which have a specific geographical origin and possess particular qualities or a reputation due to that place of origin. Most commonly, a GI includes the name of the place of origin of the goods. The definition is complicated, however, by the differing terminology used in the relevant international treaties:

Both the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Madrid Agreement for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods use the term indications of source. Neither gives a definition, but the language used in the latter Agreement makes clear that an indication of source refers simply to a country, or place in that...