BRUSSELS – Along the lines of the geographical indications created to protect specific agricultural products, the European Commission presented on Wednesday 13 April a draft regulation which aims to guarantee intellectual protection to artisanal and industrial products from particular European regions. The legislative proposal aims to promote artisanal products even outside the areas of origin, strengthening the protection of smaller companies.
«In crafts and industry – said the competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager – many small and medium-sized enterprises have developed and refined their manufacturing skills over the course of generations, but lack the incentives and resources to promote them across borders. The new protection guaranteed by geographical indications for artisanal and industrial products will give new impetus to both regions and producers in their competition on a continental and global level ”.
Protection beyond borders
The objective of the regulation, which will have to be approved by Parliament and the Council, is to introduce protection that is European, and no longer national or regional, to products such as Limoges porcelain, Murano glass, Donegal tweed. , Solingen cutlery or Boleslawiec pottery. The protection will not only apply to the 27 member countries of the Union, but also to the signatory countries of the Geneva Act, which protects geographical indications at international level.
How the protection will work
According to the text proposed by Brussels, the registration of the single product will take place in two stages. In the first instance, the national authorities will have to evaluate three parameters: the local specificity of the product, its particular reputation for quality, and the presence of production steps in the single European region. Subsequently, the Community agency Euiop, dedicated to the protection of intellectual property and based in Alicante, will give final approval to the European registration.
For countries that do not have national authorities responsible for the intellectual protection of products, it will be possible to skip the first phase and go directly to the European one. Handicraft products can be created by hand or with machinery, while industrial products will have to be created in series, mostly thanks to machinery. As mentioned, the aim is to follow the example of the geographical indications of food products, which have existed since 1992.