Recent court decisions in the United States – concerning a product labelled as Kona Beer while not being produced in Kona, and fruits and vegetables which labels refereed to a Washington farm while coming from all over the world – confirm the increase in awareness as to the importance of geographical origin of products among consumers and legal practitionersIn June, the Norther District of California preliminary approved a settlement to resolve claims that Kona Beer deceived consumers as it brought them to believe the product at issue was brewed in Hawaii. Always in June, the court of the Western District of Washington found that a reasonable consumer relying on the labels referring to a Washington farm could conclude that the ingredients in the products commercialized came from a farm located in Washington.
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 GIs in the USA see the concerning category in the section Policy and Advocacy
