On 3 June 2015 the official journal published the decree on geographical indications for industrial and handmade products.1
This is the decree implementing the 17 March 2014 Act relating to consumption2 that created, in French law, Geographical Indications (IG) for manufactured products paving the way for French industrials and artisans to protect their non-food products, such as knives or lace.
The definition of these new geographical indications, codified in article L721-2 of the Intellectual Property Code, is as follows: a geographical area or a specific location allowing to designate a product other than agricultural, forestry, food or sea products, originating therein and for which the quality, the reputation or other characteristics are essentially related to such geographical origin
A new logo has been created that producers benefiting from an IG can affix to their products
Unlike the Controlled or Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications (AOC, AOP, IGP…), these new geographical indications will not be managed by the INAO (National Institute of Origin and Quality), but the INPI (National Institute of Intellectual Property).
The 17 March 2014 Act, combined with this new decree, goes further in the protection of geographical indications and, when also combined with the 13 October 2014 Law of Farming Food and Forests[ Law N°2014-1170 of 13 October 2014 for farming, food and forest], of AOC, AOP, IGP …. This is because it creates the possibility for the IG defence and management organisation or the INAO (for AOC, AOP, IGP …) to oppose requests for identical or similar French trademarks on the basis of their IG or AOC, AOP, IGP…
This new opposition procedure has been available at the INPI since 4 June 2015.
Similarly, the 17 March 2014 Act along with this new decree opens the possibility for local authorities to oppose trademark applications before the INPI on the basis of their name, image or reputation.
If the invocation of an authorities name in the framework of an opposition seems clear, the ability to petition for their image or reputation appears more complex and evidence of these rights and their infringement must be highly substantiated. In the future, practice and case law will better define these concepts.
France has once again demonstrated its commitment to the protection of French heritage and maintains the edge in relation to other countries. Today, such a protection for industrial products is unprecedented in Europe.
