GIs for craft and industrial products
General
More than half of the Member States have created specific sui generis national protection systems for craft and industrial products (‘CI products’) with different characteristics The others only use trade marks and/or unfair competition rules to protect their intangible goods. Also, there was no cross-border system of mutual recognition of national protection systems in the internal market. At Union level, manufacturers could register individual trade marks, collective marks and certification marks. However, the use of trade mark protection did not allow producers of CI products to certify at Union level the link between quality and geographical origin, which signals qualities that are due to specific local skills and traditions.
This is now changing due to the Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 on the protection of geographical indications for craft and industrial products and amending Regulations (EU) 2017/1001 and (EU) 2019/1753, which entered into force on 16 November 2023. The launch of the new application system is foreseen for December 2025, with the EUIPO being in charge of setting it up.
Content
To gain EU-wide protection against infringements, products shall meet the following criteria:
- The product must originate in a specific place, region or country;
- Its given quality, reputation or other characteristic must be essentially attributable to its geographical origin; and
- At least one of its production steps must take place in the defined geographical area.
Examination and registration will be done in two phases: Applicants will first file their GI applications to designated Member States' authorities, who will then submit successful applications for further evaluation and approval to the EUIPO. A direct application procedure to EUIPO will also be possible for Member States that obtain a derogation from the Commission, if they have no national evaluation procedure in place or lack interested producers.
Craft and industrial producers will have the opportunity to showcase their protected GI by displaying a distinct logo on their products. This labelling will enable consumers to identify craft and industrial products with specific characteristics linked to their geographical origin, helping them make informed choices when purchasing these products. Producers will have the ability to seek international protection via WIPO for their products' names, enhancing their global competitiveness. Third country producers will also be able to seek protection under this new EU scheme for their well-known craft and industrial products that comply with the EU requirements.
Relationship with national rights and deadlines
By 2 December 2026, national specific protection for GIs for craft and industrial products shall cease to exist, and pending applications shall be considered not to have been submitted, unless a request for registration and protection is made by interested Member States.
Searchability
The EUIPO is tasked with establishing and maintaining the Union register for GIs. GIs applied for and entered in the Union registers will searchable via the GIview portal.
Key points for the business
It may be worthwhile going through the product portfolio to check:
- whether there are any national protections for GIs that need to be converted to EU-wide rights;
- whether any of such products marketed by a company are worth protecting by way of GI;
- the other way around moving forward: Prior to launching products, in order to avoid infringements, it is worthwhile checking whether any names or descriptions (or names and descriptions similar to such) contemplated for the product are protected as GI.
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