Between December 2017 and July this year, the “Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux” (CIVB) won two cases in China concerning the appellation Bordeaux.
The CIVB, which had registered the appellation both under the Chinese sui generis and the collective mark systems, obtained in both cases criminal convictions for the violation of the collective mark: in December 2017, two Chinese citizen were sentenced to 3 years in prison by the tribunal of Shanghai; In July this year, a distributor was condemned to 2 years in prison by a tribunal in the district of Shandong. While counterfeiting, especially in the wine sector, remains a major challenge in China, these rulings are encouraging for the protection of GIs in China. Moreover, the situation might improve in the following months with the conclusion of the EU/China stand-alone GIs agreement as well as the entry into force (expected early next year) of a new law targeting fake goods sold on China’s e-commerce sites. More information available @ https://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/Bordeaux-Scores-Wins-Over-Wine-Counterfeiters-in-China
If you are interested in knowing more about the GIs protection systems in China, you can consult oriGIn manual on the protection of GIs in the BRICs countries (pages 48 to 66)
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 GI Enforcement see the respective category in the section Policy and Advocacy
