EU – On May 2, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament came to a provisional agreement on the decree that is to regulate the protection of geographical indications for handicraft and industrial products in future. Hitherto, geographical indications were used above all for food and beverages. As soon as the new regulation has been finally approved, such indications will also be available for other products, whose characteristics are significantly associated with the production region. This applies for example for knives from Solingen, cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest, as well as for Bohemian glass or porcelain from Limoges. The provisional agreement concluded now has to be approved by the Council and the Parliament and formally adopted.
According to a press release by the Council of the European Union, the new regulation is to introduce a directly applicable protection of geographical indications for handicraft and industrial products such as for example jewellery, textiles, glass or porcelain at EU-level, thus enhancing the existing EU protection of geographical indications in the field of agriculture. Furthermore, efficient control and monitoring processes are to be implemented, involving the protection of the geographical indications using a system that is based on own declarations as the standard procedure and that is complemented by controls carried out by the member states. The new regulation is also to ensure the protection of handicraft and industrial geographical indications for domain names and in the online sector. In addition, the processes aim to make the registration of geographical indications easier particularly for SMEs while at the same time guaranteeing a high degree of legal protection. Here, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) will play an important role.
The new regulation especially opens up new opportunities for the promotional products industry to place a greater focus on the theme regionality in future. In this way, the products from promotional products suppliers such as porcelain or textiles with regional peculiarities could in future carry the protected geographical indications – this would be an added storytelling advantage and would further emphasise a company’s regional roots.
