Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
before the EEC Treaty entered into force and only Denmark, France, Italy and
the Netherlands were parties to it. The Court found on the facts that in this
case, the rights of non-Member countries were not involved, and therefore, a
Member State could not rely on the provisions of a pre-existing international
agreement to justify restrictions on the marketing of products coming from
another Member State, where the marketing was otherwise lawful by virtue of
the free movement of goods provided for by the Treaty.
2.20
Similarly, in the
Cambozola
case
6
the ECJ ruled that the free movement of
goods principle was subordinated to the Stresa Convention and Council
Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 permitting the registration and enforcement of
rights in relation to designations of origin.
4. Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and
their Registration 1958
7
(a) Introduction
The Lisbon Agreement established an international system of registration and
protection of appellations of origin among members of the Lisbon Union,
which comprised signatory states. Article 1(2) obliged parties to the Agreement
to protect on their territories 'the appellations of origin of products' of signatory
countries, 'recognized and protected as such in the country of origin' and
registered at the International Bureau of WIPO. Article 4 of the Agreement
provides that the Agreement does not exclude the protection already granted to
appellations of origin in each of the countries of the Lisbon Union by virtue of
other international instruments, such as the Paris and the Madrid Agreement
for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods, 'or by
virtue of national legislation or court decisions'.
2.21
2.22
The Lisbon Agreement failed to attract support from more than a few nations
(only 28 signatories by September 2013). Gervais (2010 at 79) observed from
an examination of all current appellations on the Lisbon register that 11
countries hold 97.5 per cent of all entries, with the top three holding over 78 per
cent, of which France holds 62.5 per cent (almost 90 per cent of which was for
wines and spirits). One problem was that accession was confined to those
nations which protected appellations of origin 'as such'. Thus, states which
6
[1999] ECR-1, 4 March 1999.
7
This agreement was concluded in Lisbon on 31 October 1958. It was revised in Stockholm in 1967 and amended
in 1979. As of September 2013 there were 28 contracting parties.
