The International Legal Protection Of Geographical Indications

Geographical indications are indications which identify a good as originating inthe 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 itsgeographical origin. One such provision in The Agreement on Trade Related Aspectsof Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPs") calls for the protection of geographicindications for goods, and TRIPS protects geographical indications as a kind ofintellectual properties. In 2001 the 4th minister conference of World TradeOrganization (WTO) take the protection of geographical indications as one of the 3important intellectual property problems in the new round trade negotiations of WTO.At the same time more and more countries realize the importance of the protection ofgeographical indications and take all kinds of measures to protect it. For exampleEstonia has legislated the Estonia Geographical Indications Protection law. Chinaboasts a boundless expanse of territory and numerous traditional productions withlocal characteristic that are competitive in the international market. It is of great 1importance to protect the geographical indications of these fine and specialproductions in China. This paper researches the international legal protection of geographical indications.Combined with the experience in China, this paper analyzes the internationalagreements on the protection of geographical indication, and then puts forward somesuggestions in order to push forward the improvement of the international legalprotection of geographical indications. This paper is divided into three parts and haveapproximate 39000 words. Chapter one is the brief introduction of geographical indications, including theanalysis of the definition, the legal characteristics of geographical indications and thenecessity of the protection. Although TRIPS has provides a definition of geographicalindications, there's still confusion among several similar concepts, namely theappellation of origin, the origin of source and geographical indications. After analyzesthe international agreement, the paper distinguishes the three different concepts andmake clear the relation of them. Chapter two analyzes the protection of geographical indications in the world.This chapter firstly analyzes the international agreement on the geographicalindications such as The Paris Convention, The Lisbon Agreement, The MadridAgreement and the TRIPS. Then secondly describes and analyzes the protection stylesof several countries. After studying the regulations and characteristics of theseinternational agreements and the law, a conclusion is made on the trend of theprotection of geographical indications in the world. All the countries have put moreemphasis on the protection, and the conflicts between some countries on this problemembody the different economic interests of them. 2Chapter three is the protection of geographical indications in China. China hasbeen the member country of many international agreements that oblige the protectionto the geographical indications, and the condition of our country also requires theprotection of them. Now China has two mechanisms to protect the geographicalindications: the protection by the Trademark Law and the protection by theRegulations On the Original Production. Two different administrations operate theprotection by different laws. The two system not only conflict with each other, butalso waste a lot of money. After the analysis of these two mechanisms, this chapter putforward a suggestion that is in accordance with the situation of today's China. At last,the paper put forward some proposals on the protection of the geographicalindications.