The Furniture Manufacturing Industry of Barbados - Caribbean ...

itions against registration of a trademark which constitutes a geographical indication. In
countries that do not specifically recognize GIs, regional trade associations may implement
them in terms of certification marks.
Geographical indications are particularly important in Europe, where there has been a long
tradition of associating certain food products with particular regions. Under European Union
Law, the protected designation of origin system which came into effect in 1992 regulates the
following geographical indications: Protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected
geographical indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).
The system used in France from the early part of the twentieth century is known as the appellation
d'origine contrôlée (AOC). Items that meet geographical origin and quality standards
may be endorsed with a government-issued stamp which acts as official certification of the
origins and standards of the product to the consumer. Examples of products that have such
'appellations of origin' include Tequila (spirits), Jaffa (oranges) and Bordeaux (wines).
The consumer-benefit purpose of the monopoly rights granted to the owner of a GI also applies
to the trademark monopoly right. Geographical indications have other similarities with
trademarks. For example, they must be registered in order to qualify for protection, and they
must meet certain conditions in order to qualify for registration. One of the most important
conditions that most governments have required before registering a name as a GI is that the
name must not already be in widespread use as the generic name for a similar product. Of
course, what is considered a very specific term for a well-known local specialty in one country
may constitute a generic term or trademark for that type of product. For example, parmigiano
cheese in Italy is generically known as parmesan cheese in Australia and the United
States.
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 (eg. 'Shiraz'), handicrafts,
flowers and perfumes.
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 on trademarks (1883), followed by a much more elaborate provision in the
1958 Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their Regitration.
Few countries joined the Lisbon agreement, however: by 1997 there were only 17 members
(Algeria, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Congo, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Gabon, Haiti, Hungary,
Israel, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Slovakia, Togo, Tunisia). About 170 geographical indications
had been registered by Lisbon Agreement members as of 1997.
The essential function of a trademark is to exclusively identify the commercial source or origin
of products or services, such that a trademark, properly called, indicates source or serves
as a badge of origin. The use of a trademark in this way is known as trademark use, and a
trademark owner seeks to enforce its rights or interests in a trademark by preventing unauthorized
trademark use.
It is important to note that trademark rights generally arise out of the use and/or registration
(see below) of a mark in connection only with a specific type or range of products or services.