Editing Geographical indication (section)

==International issues==
[[Image:GI_Collective_Dimension.png|thumb|500px|center|GI Collective Dimension]]

Like trademarks, geographical indications are regulated locally by each country because conditions of registration such as differences in the generic use of terms vary from country to country. This is especially true of food and beverage names which frequently use geographical terms, but it may also be true of other products such as carpets (e.g. '[[Shiraz]]'), handicrafts, flowers and perfumes.

When products with GIs acquire a reputation of international magnitude, some other products may try to pass themselves off as the authentic GI products. This kind of competition is often seen as unfair, as it may discourage traditional producers as well as mislead consumers. Thus the European Union has pursued efforts to improve the protection of GI internationally.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Huysmans|first=Martijn|title=Exporting protection: EU trade agreements, geographical indications, and gastronationalism|journal=Review of International Political Economy|doi=10.1080/09692290.2020.1844272|year=2020|volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=979–1005 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Inter alia, the European Union has established distinct legislation to protect geographical names in the fields of wines, spirits, agricultural products including beer. A register for protected geographical indications and denominations of origin relating to products in the field of agriculture including beer, but excluding mineral water, was established (DOOR). Another register was set up for wine region names, namely the E-Bacchus register. In November 2020, the European Union Intellectual Property Office launched the comprehensive database GI View covering food, wine, and spirit GIs.<ref name="GI View">{{cite web|url=https://www.tmdn.org/giview/gi/search|title=GI View}}</ref> A private database project (GEOPRODUCT directory) intends to provide worldwide coverage. Accusations of 'unfair' competition should although be levelled with caution since the use of GIs sometimes comes from European immigrants who brought their traditional methods and skills with them.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://agritrade.cta.int/en/content/view/full/1794 |title=Geographical Indications and the challenges for ACP countries, by O'Connor and Company |access-date=2011-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721221335/http://agritrade.cta.int/en/content/view/full/1794 |archive-date=2011-07-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Paris convention and Lisbon agreement===

[[International trade]] made it important to try to harmonize the different approaches and standards that governments used to register GIs. The first attempts to do so were found in the [[Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property|Paris Convention]] on trademarks (1883, still in force, 176 members), followed by a much more elaborate provision in the 1958 [[Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their Registration]]. About 9000 geographical indications were registered by Lisbon Agreement members.

[[File:Geographical Indications in force for selected national and regional authorities in 2022.png|thumb|Estimated geographical Indications in force for selected national and regional authorities in 2022]]
According to WIPO [[World Intellectual Property Indicators]] 2023, with data received from 91 national and regional authorities, there were an estimated 58400 protected GI in existence in 2022. Of the 58,400 GIs in force in 2022, upper middle-income economies accounted for 46.3% of the world total, followed by high-income (43.1%) and lower middle-income economies (10.6%). In terms of regional distribution, Europe had the most GIs in force, amounting to 53.1%, followed by Asia (36.3%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4.3%), Oceania (3.6%), North America (2.6%) and Africa 0.1%. Figures should nevertheless be interpreted with caution as GIs can be protected through many different means, ''sui generis'' systems, trademark systems, other national legal means, regional systems and international agreements (eg, Lisbon and Madrid systems).<ref>{{Cite web |title=World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) - 2023 |url=https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/series/index.jsp?id=37 |access-date=2023-12-11 |website=World Intellectual Property Organization |language=en}}{{cc-notice|by4}}</ref>

===Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights===

The [[World Trade Organization|WTO]] [[Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]] ("TRIPS") defines "geographical indications" as indications that 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 geographic origin."<ref name="wto.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_04b_e.htm|title=WTO - intellectual property (TRIPS) - agreement text - standards|website=www.wto.org}}</ref>

In 1994, when negotiations on the [[World Trade Organization|WTO]] [[Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights|TRIPS]] were concluded, governments of all WTO member countries (164 countries, as of  August 2016) had agreed to set certain basic standards for the protection of GIs in all member countries. There are, in effect, two basic obligations on WTO member governments relating to GIs in the TRIPS agreement:

# '''Article 22 of the TRIPS Agreement''' says that all governments must provide legal opportunities in their own laws for the owner of a GI registered in that country to prevent the use of marks that mislead the public as to the geographical origin of the good. This includes prevention of use of a geographical name which although literally true "falsely represents" that the product comes from somewhere else.<ref name="wto.org"/>
# '''Article 23 of the TRIPS Agreement''' says that all governments must provide the owners of GI the right, under their laws, to prevent the use of a geographical indication identifying wines not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication. This applies ''even where the public is not being misled'', where there is no unfair competition and where the true origin of the good is indicated or the geographical indication is accompanied by expressions such as "kind", "type", "style", "imitation" or the like. Similar protection must be given to geographical indications identifying spirits.<ref name="wto.org"/>

Article 22 of TRIPS also says that governments may refuse to register a trademark or may invalidate an existing trademark (if their legislation permits or at the request of another government) if it misleads the public as to the true origin of a good. Article 23 says governments may refuse to register or may invalidate a trademark that conflicts with a wine or spirits GI whether the trademark misleads or not.

'''Article 24 of TRIPS''' provides a number of exceptions to the protection of geographical indications that are particularly relevant for geographical indications for wines and spirits (Article 23). For example, Members are not obliged to bring a geographical indication under protection where it has become a generic term for describing the product in question. Measures to implement these provisions should not prejudice prior trademark rights that have been acquired in good faith; and, under certain circumstances &mdash; including long-established use &mdash; continued use of a geographical indication for wines or spirits may be allowed on a scale and nature as before.<ref name="wto.org"/>

=== Post-TRIPS Agreement ===
Creation of a geographical indicator register for wines and spirits, as well as a geographical indication extension to products other than wine and spirits, have been important issues on the WTO's agenda since the TRIPS Agreement.<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|page=60–61}} In the Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations, launched in December 2001, WTO member governments are negotiating on the creation of a 'multilateral register' of geographical indications. Some countries, including the EU, are pushing for a register with legal effect, while other countries, including the United States, are pushing for a non-binding system under which the WTO would simply be notified of the members' respective geographical indications.

Some governments participating in the negotiations (especially the European Communities) wish to go further and negotiate the inclusion of GIs on products other than wines and spirits under Article 23 of TRIPS. These governments argue that extending Article 23 will increase the protection of these marks in international trade. This is a controversial proposal, however, that is opposed by other governments including the United States who question the need to extend the stronger protection of Article 23 to other products. They are concerned that Article 23 protection is greater than required, in most cases, to deliver the consumer benefit that is the fundamental objective of GIs laws.

===Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement===
In 2015, The Geneva Act was adopted. It entered into force early-2020 with the accession of the European Union. The Geneva Act bridges the Lisbon system of Appellations of Origin, and the TRIPS system of Geographical Indications.