History of GI

July 24, 2009
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

Governments have been protecting trade names and trademarks used in relation to food products identified with a particular region since at least the end of the nineteenth century, using laws against false trade descriptions or passing off, which generally protect against suggestions that a product has a certain origin, quality or association when it does not. In such cases the consumer protection benefit is generally considered to outweigh the limitation on competitive freedoms represented by the grant of a monopoly of use over a geographical indication.