Problems And Countermeasures In The Protection Of Geographical Indications In China

Geographical Indication(GI)protecting system,like other intellectual property mechanisms,isa set of transplanted foreignlegal systems.Compared with other intellectual property systems having formed and provided perfect protection,however,the GI protecting system in China is still in the process of constant development and perfectness.Our country has a long history and is rich in GI resources,therefore,it is entirely necessary to constantly perfect the legal system and strengthen the protection ofGI.China has started the protection on GI since it joined in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property,and just a few years later it has established aspecial GI protecting system;however,the existing protecting system is not unified,leaving some loopholes in legislation,as well as some intersections and blank zones caused by unified standards in industrial management.Therefore,the phenomenon of right conflict emerges from time to time in legal protection of specific GIs.Based on this observation,the paper will sort the development of ChineseGI protection system,analyze the emerging problems and conflicts in GI legal protection and offer corresponding countermeasures.Chapter I is the overview of GI protecting system.This chapter will mainly make introduction from two aspects: on the one hand,select related concepts of three representative GIs,expound the origins of the concepts and discuss the evolution processes;on the other hand,introduce the GI protecting system in China.This paper will firstly introduce GIprotectionhistory from China's joining in the international treaty;secondly will introduce the framework of protectingGI under theexisting Trademark Act;finally,will introduce the specialized law protecting system on the GI,namely,two protecting system managed by the General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China(AQSIQ)and Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China.Chapter II will discuss the problems existed in the GI protection practices and analyze the reasons.This chapter makes a specific introduction on the problems existed in the legal protection practices,including the conflict resulted by the differentregistration systems,mainly the registration as a collective trademark and the registration as a GI in AQSIQ;the conflict between the registered trademark and unregistered GI,as well as the conflict among the existing protection systems.This paper also analyzes manifestationsreasons and suggests solutions for the problems.Chapter III discussesthe coordination in related conflicts of GI under the existing legal framework,focusing on judicial coordination and administrative coordination.Wherein,the judicial coordination refers to that apply existing legal rules and principles in specific disputes according to the rule of protecting the priority right,the examination of subjective intention and benefit balance principle are also considered.The administrative coordination is expound from the perspective of government management,mainly including establishing the coordination mechanism for resolving conflicts in the existing system,playing the role of industrial association,introducing the third-party management institutions,applying for the examination in registration stage and measures in management stage.