Appellations Of Origin And Legal Protection

An appellation of origin is, "indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region of locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin."As an appellation of origin represents the intrinsic quality and features of the product provided and epitomizes the reputation of the manufacture, it often plays a decisive role in the choice made by consumers in shopping. This is also the reason why the international community unanimously choose to protect appellations of origin according to law.The advocacy of an aspiration for the protection of appellations of origin are basically the same in various countries,but owing to the influence of such factors as the differences in their legal systems and historical traditions and the special characteristics of appellations of origin ,the modes of protection for appellations of origin chosen by various countries are somewhat different. To look at the relevant legislation of various countries, there are no more than the following four modes.The first is a specialized law on the protection of appellations of origin. The second mode of legislation is to normalize and protect appellations of origin through the law for countering unfair competition. The third mode of legisiation is to allow appellations of origin to be registered as collective marks and bring them within the scope of protection of trademark law. The fourth mode of legislation is to protect appellations of origin througn the mixed laws.The notion that appellations of origin must be protected according to law is also accepted by numerous international conventions. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Lisbon Agreement and Regulations for the protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registrations, the Agreement on Trade-relatde Aspects of Intellectual Property Right, ete . All have contents related to the protection of appellations of origin.The traditional habit of marking goods with appellations of origin has a long historyin China. As China has a vast territory, abundant resources and highly varied climatic conditions in addition to numerous traditional crafts handed down through generations, there are many famous and high-quality local special products whose qualities are determined by natural factors and human factors in all parts of the country. And in order to highlight the sources and special features of the products, the producers aer accustomed to naming their goods by the indications of source. As to how these designations of goods with significance of origin are to be protected is a question which has remained somewhat unclear over the years. At present China still has no definite regulation on the protection of appellations of origin .At the same time, the demand for protecting appellations of origin is becoming increasingly stronger in practice, in sharp contrast to the level and current state of protection for appellations of origin in China.In this paper, the author presented a number of new insights for protecting appellations of origin, based on international usual practice, helpful foreign experience and national conditions of China.