Intellectual Property Rights: Open Access

Knowing the Origins of Geographical Indications

Taeshi Ikea^* Department of Economics, Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, Japan
^*Correspondence: Taeshi Ikea, Department of Economics, Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, Japan, Email:

Received: 04-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. IPR-2022-198; Editor assigned: 06-Jan-2022, Pre QC No. IPR-2022-198; Reviewed: 20-Jan-2022, QC No. IPR-2022-198; Revised: 24-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. IPR-2022-198; Published: 31-Jan-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2375-4516.22.10.198

About the Study

A Geographical Indication (GI) is a name or sign used on a product that corresponds to a particular geographical location or origin (a city, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product’s source, acts as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is formed according to traditional methods or has a good reputation due to its geographical origin. Governments have protected trade names and trademarks of food products identified with a specific region since at least the end of the 19th century, using laws against false trade descriptions, that usually protect against suggestions that a product contains a certain origin, quality, or association when it does not. In such cases, the limitation on competitive freedoms which results from the grant of a monopoly of use over a geographical indication is justified by governments either by consumer protection benefits or by producer protection benefits.

Geographical indications and trademarks are distinctive signs used to distinguish goods or services in the marketplace. Both convey information regarding the origin of a good or service and enable customers to associate a specific quality with a good or service. Trademarks inform customers regarding the source of a good or service. They identify a good or service as originating from a selected company. Trademarks help customers associate a good or service with a particular quality or reputation, based on information about the company liable for manufacturing or offering it. Geographical indications identify a good as originating from a specific place. Based on its place of origin, customers could associate a good with a specific quality, characteristic, or reputation. A trademark typically consists of an arbitrary sign which will be used by its owner or another person authorized to do so. A trademark can be assigned or licensed to anyone, anywhere in the world because it’s linked to a particular company and not to a specific place. In contrast, the sign used to denote a geographical indication typically corresponds to the name of the place of origin of the good, or to the name by which the good is known in this place. A geographical indication is also used by all persons who, in the area of origin, produce the good according to specific standards. However, because of its link with the place of origin, a geographical indication can’t be assigned or authorized to somebody outside that place or not belonging to the group of authorized producers.

Nevertheless, appellations of origin and geographical indications both need a qualitative link between the product to which they refer and its place of origin. Both inform customers about a product’s geographical origin and the high quality or characteristic of the product linked to its place of origin. The fundamental difference between the two terms is that the link with the place of origin should be stronger in the case of an appellation of origin. The quality or characteristics of a product protected as an appellation of origin should result exclusively or essentially from its geographical origin. This usually implies that the raw materials ought to be sourced in the place of origin and that the processing of the product should also happen there. Moreover, the production of the raw materials and the development or process of a GI product don’t necessarily take place entirely in the defined geographical region. A geographical indication is a more general concept that doesn’t determine a particular mode of protection.

Geographical indications are usually applied to traditional products, produced by rural, marginal, or indigenous communities over generations, that have gained a reputation on the local, national or international markets because of their specific unique qualities. Like trademarks, geographical indications are regulated locally by each country because conditions of registration such as variations in the generic use of terms vary from country to country. This is especially true of food and beverage names that regularly use geographical terms; however, it may also be true of other products such as carpets, handicrafts, flowers, and perfumes.