Study commissioned by the EUIPO about the Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 on the protection of geographical indications for craft and industrial products which entered into force on 16 November 2023 and will be fully applicable as of 1 December 2025.
Among others, the Regulation stipulates that the examination and registration of craft and industrial geographical indications (CI GIs) will occur in two phases, the first one at national level, and the second one at European Union level. Each Member State must appoint a national competent authority to oversee the national phase of the registration process
With the aim of evaluating the development of this regulation the EUIPO commissioned this study with two main objectives:
- to provide an overview of the current national legal framework
- to assess to what extent there is a local interest in the protection of CI GIs.
Regarding the first objective, only 16 Member States, such as France, Hungary and the Czech Republic, have adopted sui generis protection systems for CI GIs although these protection schemes differ in terms of scope, administration, fees and enforcement measures. Of these 16 Member States, Germany, Italy and Spain do not have a sui generis system at national level but have enacted specific legislation to protect the names of certain traditional CI products as GIs.
Despite this Member States are currently discussing and preparing new rules for the implementation of the CIGI Regulation nº 2023/2411.
As to the second objective, to assess the local interest in the protection of CI GIs, semi structured questionnaires were sent to public authorities and private sector representatives in the EU Member States. 493 stakeholders were contacted but only 130 responses were received; at least one public authority from each Member State participated, as well as stakeholders in the private sector from 14 Member States responded.
Most respondents (notably producers) indicated a strong overall interest in CI GIs protection and almost 70 % of respondents were familiar with the concept. Moreover 86% of producers surveyed expressed a willingness to apply for CI GI registration although only 20 producers indicated that their products have formalized the required specifications
Likewise, most producers had fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than EUR 2 million.
On the public sector side, the highest response rates coming from Spain, Italy and Portugal. The results of the survey revealed that the public authorities of eight Member States indicated that their country could seek the opt-out under Article 19 of the CIGI Regulation and other three indicated that internal discussions were still ongoing.
In conclusion, while there is considerable interest in the protection of CI GIs in both the private and public sectors, the willingness and capacity to implement the new GI regime varies widely.
Noelia Gutiérrez
Attorney at Law
