Canberra producers defeated, according to which “prosecco” is a variety of vine and not an Ig wine
by Micaela Cappellini
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The Consortium for the protection of Prosecco Doc brings home a victory in China against Australian wine and grape Inc., the association of Australian wine producers: in Beijing Italians will be able to use the registered trademark “Pu Luo Sai Ke”, or Prosecco in Chinese.
As part of the Agreement on Cooperation and Protection of Geographical Indications between the European Union and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the Treviso Consortium had already registered the “Prosecco” brand in China. To this was recently added the trademark in Chinese ideograms contested by Australian Wine and Grape Inc, which has an interest in exporting Australian wines labeled as “prosecco” to this market too.
The Australian association thus filed an application for annulment claiming that “Prosecco” is a vine variety and not a wine protected as a geographical indication (GI).
After two levels of judgement, the Beijing High Court rejected the Australian request, establishing that the Prosecco brand, even in the Chinese transliteration, constitutes an Ig and can only be used to identify wine made in Italy. «We can only be happy with the result – said the president of the Consortium, Stefano Zanette – China, one of the most populous countries in the world, has once again recognized that the term Prosecco indisputably indicates our denomination of origin. This protection aims to further safeguard our product, the uniqueness of our territories and the hard work that the entire DOC supply chain carries out on a daily basis.”