Geographical Indications for Food Products

"Since the first edition [of this title]..., great changes have taken place in both national and international legal and regulatory frameworks for geographical indications (GIs) system for food products. Rather than use of limitation (designed to prevent the use of 'culture' for protectionist purposes), there is a preponderance to now favour recognition of GIs, with enforcement directed at protection. While the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) remain the multilateral legal benchmarks for GIs, the field has been assertively entered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with the 2015 Geneva Act (which adds GIs to the EU Lisbon Agreement). This book, still notable for its thorough exploration of the meaning of the TRIPS commitments, in its second edition, brings a new perspective that takes the changed conditions fully into account...[The author] covers a wide range of issues such as the following:] estimates of the value added by origin and tradition; GIs as a tool for national and local development; growing importance of the concepts heirloom, heritage, and local; minimum standards of protection under TRIPS; administration and policing of product characteristics; procedures followed by the European Union, Japan and others; applicable laws concerning labelling and unfair business practices; traditional communal nature of GIs versus private property characterization; significance of the WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade; administrative and procedural rules at WTO, regional, and national levels; the role of the Codex Alimentarius; and the role of the TRIPS Council."--