Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
deal with GIs. The Paris Convention 1883 in Art 10 provided for the seizure of
imports of goods bearing 'false indications of the source of goods'. This
expression was repeated in the Madrid Agreement for the Repression of False
or Deceptive Indications of Source of Goods 1891. The International Conven-
tion on the Use of Appellations of Origin and Denominations of Cheeses
('Stresa Convention') 1951 borrowed the term
appellations d 'origine
from the
French AOC legislation. This in turn was repeated in the Lisbon Agreement
for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their Registration, 1958.
Article 2 of the Lisbon Agreement defined 'appellation of origin' to mean:
the geographical name of a country, region, or locality, which serves to designate a
product originating therein, the quality and characteristics of which are due exclusively
or essentially to the geographical environment, including natural and human factors.
1.21
Article 22 of the TRIPS Agreement defines geographical indications as:
indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region
or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of
the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.
This definition expands the Lisbon Agreement concept of appellation of origin
to protect goods which merely derive a reputation from their place of origin
without possessing a given quality or other characteristics which are due to that
place. Also, under the TRIPS Agreement, to be protected, a GI has to be an
indication, but not necessarily the name of a geographical place on earth.
1.22
The WTO Secretariat in a survey of national laws identified 23 different terms
and as a consequence adopted the term 'indications of geographical origin' to
designate the different expressions used by WTO Members to protect geo-
graphical origin of products.
2
1.23
Dev Gangjee suggests that the terminological diversity in this area may be
attributable to the various policies to be served by GIs, such as agricultural
marketing, rural development, the preservation of traditional knowledge and
cultural heritage (Gangjee, 2012 at 2-18).
1.24
It should be noted that as early as the Madrid Agreement for the Repression of
False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods 1891, most laws embrace
1.25
2
Note by the WTO Secretariat IP/C/W/253, dated April 2001, in 'Review under Article 24.2 of the application
of the provisions of the section of the TRIPS Agreement on geographical indications. Summary of the responses
to the checklist of questions (IP/C/13 and Add.1)'. For a more recent global survey of GIs legislation see
O'Connor et al, 2007.
