{"id":37919,"date":"2023-02-07T08:52:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T07:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/geographical-indications\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T20:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:01:04","slug":"geographical-indications","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/trademark-law\/geographical-indications\/","title":{"rendered":"Geographical Indications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-table-of-contents yoast-table-of-contents\"><h2>Geographical Indications<\/h2><ul><li><a href=\"#h-geografische-angaben\" data-level=\"2\">Geographical Indications<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-was-wird-geschutzt\" data-level=\"2\">What is protected?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-vorsicht-bei-gattungsbezeichnungen-kein-schutz\" data-level=\"2\">Caution regarding Generic Terms \u2013 No Protection!<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-wie-wird-geschutzt\" data-level=\"2\">How is protection granted?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<a class=\"mr-cta-link mr-cta-button-cal\" href=\"#h2-booking\" title=\"Free initial consultation\"><span class=\"mr-cta-link-normal\">Select your preferred appointment now:<\/span><span class=\"mr-cta-link-bold\">Free initial consultation<\/span><\/a>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-geografische-angaben\">Geographical Indications<\/h2>\n\n<p>Goods are often provided with a designation of origin to indicate a specific reputation or quality, or to evoke another advantageous association among potential customers.<\/p>\n\n<p>Under certain circumstances, such designations of origin may enjoy protection under unfair competition law.<\/p>\n<a class=\"mr-cta-link mr-cta-button-cal\" href=\"#h2-booking\" title=\"Free initial consultation\"><span class=\"mr-cta-link-normal\">Select your preferred appointment now:<\/span><span class=\"mr-cta-link-bold\">Free initial consultation<\/span><\/a>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-was-wird-geschutzt\">What is Protected?<\/h2>\n\n<p>Within the framework of the TRIPS Agreement (<em>Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights<\/em>), which regulates minimum standards in the field of intellectual property law and is binding for all members of the WTO (<em>World Trade Organisation<\/em>), geographical indications are defined as follows:<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;<\/strong>Indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>Whether a designation in this sense refers to a specific place and how this area is delimited is determined by the prevailing public perception.<\/p>\n\n<p>Legally, this scope of protection is also extended to geographical indications for identifying the origin of services.<\/p>\n\n<p>Not only direct but also indirect designations of origin are protected, through which the relevant public associates the goods with a specific place and thus with specific characteristics.<\/p>\n\n<p>Examples: Vienna&#8217;s St. Stephen&#8217;s Cathedral or the application of national colors to a product<\/p>\n\n<p>Designations such as &#8220;genuine&#8221; or &#8220;original&#8221; hold a special significance:<\/p>\n\n<p>A good may be designated as &#8220;original&#8221; if it originates from the manufacturer so designated or stands in a special relationship to the name bearer. Furthermore, only the initial producer of a good may market it as &#8220;genuine&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n<p>Wines and spirits also enjoy special legal protection.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-vorsicht-bei-gattungsbezeichnungen-kein-schutz\">Caution Regarding Generic Terms \u2013 No Protection!<\/h2>\n\n<p>It happens that original geographical indications transform into mere generic terms, now possessing only a descriptive character and thus losing their need for protection.<\/p>\n\n<p>Again, the prevailing public perception is decisive here. Such a transformation and the loss of protection under unfair competition law are to be assumed if only a negligible portion of the relevant public perceives the designation in question as an indication of the origin of the goods. <\/p>\n\n<p>Examples: Wiener Schnitzel or Italian salad<\/p>\n\n<p>Some designations only seemingly refer to geographical indications, but in reality, they are merely generic terms from the outset. For example, the designation &#8220;Hamburger&#8221; for the corresponding dish is not specific to the city of Hamburg. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-wie-wird-geschutzt\">How is Protection Granted?<\/h2>\n\n<p>In the protection of geographical indications under unfair competition law, the prohibition of misleading practices naturally plays a particularly significant role, as a product can be considerably individualized and thus highlighted in the market through the use of a designation of origin. Primarily, this can evoke certain quality and price expectations among the target audience and positively influence the decision-making process of potential customers. <\/p>\n\n<p>A designation of origin is legally relevant even if it is capable of influencing a not insignificant portion of the target consumer group or the average informed consumer in their decision-making. The mere risk of misleading is sufficient here. <\/p>\n\n<p>Beyond the prohibition of misleading practices, the prohibition of aggressive business practices and the prohibition of disparagement of a company can also become significant.<\/p>\n\n<p>A special feature for geographical indications in cases of misleading, aggressive, or disparaging interventions is the exception that protection exists regardless of whether the defendant acted for competitive purposes.<\/p>\n<a class=\"mr-cta-link mr-cta-button-cal\" href=\"#h2-booking\" title=\"Free initial consultation\"><span class=\"mr-cta-link-normal\">Select your preferred appointment now:<\/span><span class=\"mr-cta-link-bold\">Free initial consultation<\/span><\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geographical Indications Goods are often provided with a designation of origin to indicate a specific reputation or quality, or to evoke another advantageous association among potential customers. Under certain circumstances, &#8230;","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":40156,"menu_order":323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37919","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-competition-law"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"336x":false,"352x":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false,"yarpp-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Peter Harlander","author_link":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/author\/secondpromotion\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Geographical Indications Goods are often provided with a designation of origin to indicate a specific reputation or quality, or to evoke another advantageous association among potential customers. Under certain circumstances, ...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37919\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlander-partner.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}