News

On April 6, the Government of Cape Verde deposited its instrument of accession to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, which now covers 36 jurisdictions. The Geneva Act will enter into force for the country on 6 July 2022.…

After 6 years of litigation, the Barcelona Court of Appeal concludes that the use of the sign “CHAMPANILLO” constitutes an infringement of the Champagne designation of origin (PDO) as well as a misappropriation of its reputation. The case concerned the…

The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is an ICANN policy that went into effect on 24 October 1999. It establishes an administrative dispute-resolution procedure to deal with abusive registrations of second level domain names in all generic Top-Level…

On Thursday, March 3, the procedure for the transformation of the National Grappa Institute into the National association for the protection of the GI Grappa was concluded. The GI Grappa has been protected at European level, on the basis of…

On March 9, the Federal government of California recognized the San Luis Obispo wine region as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) under the name “San Luis Obispo Coast” (SLO Coast). This registration will take effect on 8 April 2022.  This…

On 10 March, under Regulation 1151/2012, the European Commission registered “Penja Pepper” as a protected geographical indication (PGI). “Penja Pepper”, grown in Cameroon on volcanic soil, was the first GI to be recognised within the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI)…

At the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2022, oriGIn has interviewed a number of women working within Geographical Indications associations around the world to talk about the challenges they have encountered in their careers and prospects for the future.…

On February 17 and 18, a conference on the creation of a sound legal and institutional framework for the protection of GIs in Nigeria was organised by the Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Project in Africa (AfrIPI). In Nigeria, the…

In January, the Regulatory Council of the PDO “Jabugo” (Spain) joined oriGIn, further expanding its global network in terms of numbers and experience. This consolidates oriGIn’s role as a platform to facilitate advocacy and best-practices exchange among GIs around the…

Late last year, the Comité Champagne (CIVC) and the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) initiated two opposition proceedings against the registration of the term “Champagne” as trademark for services in class 43 (restaurants, bars). Following this…

On February 4, Brazil’s National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) announced the publication of the new version of its GI Manual. The first edition of this manual was published in May 2021 with the objective of increasing the quality, transparency…