PTC FORUM : PUBLICATIONS

INTERNATIONAL / GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS / TRIPS

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law

The Protection of Geographical Indications (Who will raise the white flag?)

Stacy Goldberg

For better or worse, the TRIPS agreement includes provisions on geographical indications; and, in this article, the author outlines the scope of the TRIPS provisions and the proposals by the European Union for adding to them. The author points out that the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia were opposed to the inclusion of any provisions in TRIPS in the first place and describes the different approaches to the problem of a geographical indications in Europe and elsewhere. The article refers to the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property, the Madrid agreement on Indications of Source and the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin; discusses in detail the effects of Articles 22, 23 and 24 of the TRIPS agreement; brings the reader up to date on continuing TRIPS negotiations; and summarises the current complaint by the United States against the European Union in respect of the European Union Council Regulation 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs. As the author puts it, the United States seems to be fighting the battle against greater protection for geographical indications on two fronts - within the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement process and within the TRIPS negotiations. According to the author, a compromise would not be impossible: perhaps on the basis that existing generic terms, such as Chablis, Burgundy, Champagne and so on, which tend to be regarded as generic by consumers, should be accepted as such and a strong system instituted to prevent future trends towards generic recognition. As for the conflict between trade mark law and the law protecting geographical indications, this can be resolved, in the author's opinion, by allowing the two systems to co-exist and to be governed jointly by the traditional rules on priority. [20054]