In October 2016, with the support of oriGIn, the Suisse Association of AOP/IGP had organized a seminar in Lausanne to discuss the best practices in Europe on GIs market controls. Italian groups had attended the event and presented the role of “agenti vigilatori”. The Italian Law (526/99, art. 14) allows groups to benefit from the services of those agents for GIs controls on the market, with the objective to prevent abuses, acts of unfair competition, counterfeiting and any other use of protected names prohibited by the law. “Agenti vigilatori” reinforce the administrative protection of GIs provided by the EU Regulations and ensured by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
Following the seminar, the Suisse Association of AOP/IGP started a campaign at the national level to introduce the professional figure of “agenti vigilatori” in the Suisse law. In this respect, a proposal has been introduced in the Swiss Parliament at the end of 2018 and approved in August 2019. The Swiss Agency of food security is currently elaborating a draft law corresponding the proposal, which will be submitted to a public consultation before the vote of the Parliament. More information available (in French) here
This shows the best practices exchange potential that can be carried out within the oriGIn global network.
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 protection at regional and national level see the concerning category in the section Policy and Advocacy
