Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Editors' preface
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Part I Legal and economic history
- Part II Current positive law in the EU and the USA
- Part III Linguistics
- Part IV Marketing
- Part V Sociology
- Part VI Law and Economics
- Part VII Philosophy
- Part VIII Anthropology
- Part IX Geography
- 17 Geographical Indications: not all ‘champagne and roses’
- 18 (Re)Locating Geographical Indications: a response to Bronwyn Parry
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
17 - Geographical Indications: not all ‘champagne and roses’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Editors' preface
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Part I Legal and economic history
- Part II Current positive law in the EU and the USA
- Part III Linguistics
- Part IV Marketing
- Part V Sociology
- Part VI Law and Economics
- Part VII Philosophy
- Part VIII Anthropology
- Part IX Geography
- 17 Geographical Indications: not all ‘champagne and roses’
- 18 (Re)Locating Geographical Indications: a response to Bronwyn Parry
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
Introduction
The relationship between geography and trade mark law is, in many people's minds, most clearly evidenced in a specific type of intellectual property right (IPR) known as the ‘geographical indication’. These instruments, which provide one kind of ‘label of origin’ for products, had their genesis in the agricultural and political milieu of eighteenth-century France. Perhaps because of this they have always been robustly championed by Europeans as exceptionally useful tools for defending the rights of local producers against the ever-present risk of the ‘genericization’ and ‘passing-off’ of their products by distant others. We now find ourselves, however, at a unique historical moment: one in which there is increasing pressure to universalize the use of geographical indications (GIs).
This prospective universalization would be both geographical and epistemological in nature. Advocates from the European Union continue to argue vociferously within the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the globalization of production and consumption of specialty goods necessitates the development of a more extensive multilateral system for recognition of geographical indications. Compliance to such systems could be secured, they assert, through the creation and robust defence of a global registry of protected place names and associated products. They have also argued that the typology of goods that would attract the higher level of protection currently afforded only to wine and spirits be extended to include a range of other products including processed foods, beverages and even handicrafts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Trade Marks and BrandsAn Interdisciplinary Critique, pp. 361 - 380Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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