Posts Tagged: "geographical indications"

On July 2, 2021, amendments to the Federal Russian Law No. 468-FZ dated December 27, 2019 “On Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation” came into force. The amendments introduced two new important rules that change the existing legal regulation on geographical indications (GIs) and appellation of origin of goods (AOGs). According to the amendments, foreign producers of champagne should relabel their products imported to Russia to “sparkling wine”. At the same time, Russian producers now have the right to label their products as “champagne”, including the usage of a special category of “Russian champagne”. In addition, the amendments introduced a new category of alcoholic drink, namely “Russian cognac”.

Among the many bureaucratic changes that resulted from the amendments to the Chinese Constitution included the integration of trademark responsibilities with the other intellectual property activities of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). Such responsibilities, including the management of trademark applications, grants and administrative adjudications, were formerly the province of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), which has been disbanded. The newly reorganized SIPO will also handle applications and grants for geographical indications of product origin.

After several years of negotiations between the Kosovo government and the European Commission, the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) entered into force on April 1, 2016. The entry into force of the SAA is an important development for Kosovo since this constitutes the first contractual relationship between Kosovo and the European Union. The SAA includes several chapters on various political and economic issues as well as provisions aiming to promote EU standards in many areas, including intellectual property. I will first highlight the main provisions of the SAA concerning IP rights and compare them with the respective provisions in a few other SAAs that the EU signed with other countries in the region. I will then analyze what the entry into force of the SAA means for the Kosovo government in terms of IP protection and how this development will positively affect trademark holders and IP practitioners.

An October 5, 2015 version of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property (IP) Chapter is now available on WikiLeaks. This article includes the entire text of the WikiLeaks-referenced TPP Section C: Trademarks. This article offers accompanying commentary together on the TPP’s trademark provisions together with thoughts on portions of the TPP text regarding Geographical Indications (GIs).