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#Pakistan: GI Law under discussion
In Pakistan, GIs are currently protected under the Trademark Ordinance of 2001 (Section 82 of Collective Marks chapter and Section 83 of Certification Marks chapter). A Draft Geographical Indication Protection Bill 2016 (Draft Bill) was recently published by the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO) and might soon give the country a sui generis legislation, which will improve the protection of GIs in Pakistan.
In particular, the Draft Bill:
- Provides definitions of key concepts and sets-up a registration procedure;
- Provides the possibility to recognize foreign GIs;
- Gives the IPO the task to establish and administer a GI Registry. The Registry will establish a national GI logo;
- Provides for control mechanisms for the compliance of GIs with product specifications;
- Defines a solid level of protection: A registered GI is protected against any direct or indirect commercial misuse in respect of identical or comparable goods where the misuse benefited or would benefit from the reputation of the GI; any unauthorized use, imitation, translation of the GI even if the true origin of the goods is accompanied by the expression such as “style”, “type”, “method, “manner”, “imitation”, or translations of such expressions, or of similar expressions likely to mislead the public;
- Provides for a limited in time duration of protection: 10 years (renewable);
- Regulates trademark applications in conflict with GIs: a trademark consisting or containing a GI will be refused by the IPO if its use contravenes the scope of the GI protection and its application was made after the date of the GI application.
The full text of the Draft Bill is available HERE and a detailed analysis @ http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=0d0b17a8-d05e-42e9-a0d4-da6fc1ecc749
#NonAgri: Significant progress in Europe
The establishment protection of non-agricultural GIs at the EU level seems to make some progress. The DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs – responsible within the Commission for this issue – recently started to work in close cooperation with the DG for Agriculture and Rural Development, with the objective to prepare a legislative proposal.
In this context, in January the European Association of Cities of Ceramics (AeuCC) – which regroups national associations from Italy (AiCC), France (AfCC), Spain (AeCC), Romania (ArCC), Germany (AgCC) and Poland (AplCC) – officially considered the protection of EU non-agricultural GIs as a priority for 2017. The AeuCC recent General Assembly also elected Mr. Collina as its new President. Collina is the chairman of the AiCC (a member of oriGIn). More information @ http://www.aeucc.eu/aeucc-assembly-in-paris/#more-230
In France, the French National Institute of Intellectual property (INPI) approved in January the second GI for a non-agricultural product under the “loi de la consommation” (Consumer Act) of March 2014: “Granit de Bretagne”. More information is available @ https://www.inpi.fr/fr/bretagne/l-inpi-homologue-la-deuxieme-indication-geographique-le-granit-de-bretagne . To date, two other GI applications are on the INPI’s list: “Savon de Marseille” (soap) and “Espadrilles de Mauléon” (shoes). See the INPI’s GI database @ https://base-indications-geographiques.inpi.fr/
