On 30 June, the EU-Vietnam trade agreement was signed by the parties. Provision concerning GIs can be found in sub-section 3 of the Intellectual Property Chapter (page 21): The GIs included in the lists (160 for the EU and 39 for Vietnam) will be protected upon the entry into force of the agreement. A few limitations to full protection were provided: “Champagne” will be fully protected after a transition period of 10 years, during which all uses incompatible with the GI protection, including translations and transliterations in Vietnamese script will be phased out.
For “Parmigiano Reggiano”, the provisions of the agreement will not prejudice the right of any person to use, or to register in Vietnam a trademark containing or consisting of the term “parmesan”. This does not apply in respect of any use that would mislead the public as to the geographical origin of the good. The protection of the GIs “Asiago”, “Fontina” and “Gorgonzola” will not prevent the use of any of these indications in the territory of Vietnam by any persons, including their successors, who made actual commercial use in good faith of those indications with regard to products in the class of “cheeses” prior to 1 January 2017. The protection of the GI “Feta” will not prevent the use of this indication in the territory of Vietnam by any persons, including their successors, who made actual commercial use in good faith of this indication with regard to products in the class of “cheeses” made from sheep’s milk or made from sheep and goat’s milk, prior to 1 January 2017. The agreement will now have to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force.
This summary has been extracted from an “oriGIn Alert”, which is a service reserved exclusively to oriGIn members. Click here to join oriGIn
For more information about bilateral and plurilateral agreements covering GIs see the concerning category in the section Policy and Advocacy
