06/01/2020 – China – EU: The text of the GIs Agreement is now public

thumb EUChinaFollowing the conclusion of the EU/China stand-alone GIs Agreement in November, earlier in December the European Commission published the text, which may be subject to further modifications as a result of the legal revision. The annexes V and VI (list of the 175 GIs from both side that will be protected within the 4 years after the entry into force of the agreement) as well as VII (handicrafts which could be protected in the future) will be published at a later stage.

The main provisions are the following:

  • 100 GIs from each party (Annex III and Annex IV) will be protected at the entry into force of the agreement; 
  • Scope of protection (Article 4): each Party shall protect the GIs listed in the annexes against: 
  • (a) the use of any means in the designation or presentation of a good that indicates or suggests that the good in question originates in a geographical area other than the true place of origin, in a manner which misleads the public as to the geographical origin of the good;
  • (b) any use of a GI identifying an identical or similar product not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question, even where the true origin of the goods is indicated or the GI is used in translation, transcription or transliteration, or accompanied by expressions such as “kind”, “type”, “style”, “imitation” or the like;
  • (c) any use of a geographical indication identifying an identical or similar product not compliant with the product specification of the protected name. 
  • Rights of use of Geographical Indications (article 5): the Chinese GIs that will be protected in the EU will be authorized to use the EU GIs logos.
  •  As regards GIs listed in Annexes V (175 Chinese GIs) and VI (175 EU GIs), they will be protected within four years after the entry into force of the agreement.
  • Relationship with Trademarks (article 6):
  • The Parties shall, ex officio or at the request of an interested party, refuse to register (or invalidate the registration of) a trademark which consists of a GI or its translation or transcription, with respect to identical or similar products not having that origin. This provision will apply for trademark applications submitted after the date of protection of the geographical indications referred to in Article 2, or after the date of application for protection for the geographical indications referred to in Article 3;
  • The Parties shall also, at the request of an interested party, refuse to register (or shall invalidate the registration of) a trade mark which indicates that the good in question originates in a geographical area other than the true place of origin, with respect to identical or similar products. This provision will also apply for trademark applications submitted after the date of protection of the geographical indications referred to in Article 2, or after the date of application for protection for the geographical indications referred to in Article 3. With respect to GIs listed in Annexes V and VI, trademark applications submitted after the entry into force of the agreement, and corresponding to one of the situations referred to in paragraph 1 of art. 6, will also have to be rejected.
  • Regarding the exceptions to full protection, a few names corresponding to EU GIs will face a phasing-out period in China.

The text legal scrubbing and translation should be completed by the end of 2019, before it can be approved according to the internal procedures of China and the EU.

 

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 

 

Join oriGIn - the Global Alliance of Geographical Indications (GIs)

Subscribe to our newsletter

Contact Info