Recently, the Nanjing Market Supervision Bureau held a symposium of food production enterprises, and the meeting decided that Nanjing related food production enterprises will jointly apply for collective trademarks, formulate group standards, and create a public brand of Nanjing duck blood fan soup.

The news got a lot of attention, but it was nothing new. In recent years, similar news about geographical indications emerge in endlessly, mainly including two categories, one is to apply for collective trademarks for local specialties, delicacies and snacks, and formulate group standards. The second is to apply for collective trademarks, to fight counterfeiting rights, each time can trigger public debate, and even widespread controversy.

Regardless of concern, hot discussion or controversy, in fact, it is because of the public nature of geographical indications. The concern is, will this change the public nature of geographical indications? In this process and even in the long term future, how to ensure its public attributes?

As the name suggests, geographical indications have strong local characteristics and strong public attributes. Because it marks the specific quality of goods, reputation or other characteristics, determined by the natural or human factors in the region, is formed in a long historical tradition. If it is a local specialty, then it is the essence of local specialties; If it is a local traditional food, it is also a classic of local traditional food. Laterally, it belongs to a region and the people with a regional identity; Vertically speaking, it is the inheritance of material culture, historical culture and spiritual culture from generation to generation.

In the long historical tradition, geographical indications are imperceptible, word-of-mouth transmission, and there is no unified standard and trademark. However, under the conditions of market economy, especially in the era of digital economy, geographical indications, as an important local brand equity and economic resources, have come to the need to protect and develop.

From the perspective of protection, with the expansion of the market and the expansion of the scale, due to the lack of standards, there are problems of uneven good and bad and chaotic quality, which is a harm to geographical indications. For example, Nanjing duck blood noodles soup, from 2 yuan to more than 20 yuan on the market, and some "duck content" is obviously insufficient. Therefore, it is indeed necessary to establish group standards and even apply for collective trademarks.

From the perspective of development, creating geographical indication products is an important way to develop local economy, drive local industries, and create characteristic products. Especially in the context of rural revitalization, it is of great significance to promote the quality, branding and industrialization of geographical indications.

According to the data of the State Intellectual Property Office, by the end of June 2022, China has approved a total of 2,493 geographical indication products. The registration of 6,927 geographical indications as collective trademarks or certification marks was approved. 19,350 market entities were approved to use special geographical indications. The importance of geographical indications can also be seen.

It needs to be clear that both the protection and development of geographical indications need to be based on their public properties. In other words, the protection of geographical indications protects its public brand assets; The development of geographical indications is also the development of public brand value.

First of all, since geographical indications belong to regional public resources, the registrant of collective trademarks of geographical indications should be a local not-for-profit group, association or other organization, rather than an individual or an enterprise. For example, before the uproar of the "green pepper" incident, the local specialties in the Sichuan and Chongqing area have become the registered trademark of a catering company in Shanghai.

Secondly, not all local specialties or traditional foods are suitable for protection as geographical indication products. If it has been degraded into a common product name over the years, it should not be registered as a geographical indication. Because of the public properties here, it is difficult to define and limit a region.

The establishment of group standards, and even get the protection of geographical indications, and apply for collective trademarks, is only a beginning, more importantly, the creation of geographical indications brand, that is, how to let geographical indications carry forward, develop its brand value, better promote the development of local industrial economy, and even enhance the local brand image. In this process, what needs to be followed is actually the public principle of geographical indications, that is, to add bricks and stones to its public attributes, on the one hand, to avoid the "tragedy of the Commons", on the other hand, to avoid overfishing and breaking the bottom line of public attributes.

Rights protection and protection are necessary means to build "public brand". Because geographical indications are public resources, it is easy to lead to "tragedy of the Commons". Everyone owns it, which means that it may be over-exploited, resulting in free-rider moral hazard. This provides a legitimate basis for local protection and rights protection.

For example, Yangzhou City Quality Supervision Bureau has issued local Yangzhou fried rice standards and awarded them; "Liuzhou Luosifen" has also applied for a collective trademark and issued a group standard; Fujian Putian registered the "Putian shoes" collective trademark, which is provided to the local shoemaking enterprises without their own brands for free use, and resolutely crack down on small workshops that fake famous brands.

Registered collective trademark provides the legal effect of rights protection and protection. For example, Chongqing Hechuan District peach slices Management Association has a Mianyang enterprise in the production and sales of peach slices packaging without authorization to use the words "Hechuan peach slices", filed a lawsuit, and won.

At the same time, the rights protection and protection of geographical indications, based on public value, cannot be overreached, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of market players.

Generally speaking, a geographical indication trademark consists of a place name plus a generic name, and the geographical name and the generic name can be used properly. As long as the merchant uses the trademark properly, in good faith, according to commercial practices, and does not directly use the collective trademark, it should not easily become a defendant. For example, people from Tongguan who have left their hometown and opened a shop in the field cannot delist for compensation because there is "Tongguan Rou Jia Mo" on the sign. Even market players in the region are exempt from the proper use of geographical and generic names. For example, in an Aksu Apple geographical indication case, the court finally determined that although the defendant had not requested the use of the certification mark to the Aksu Apple Association, the Aksu Apple Association, as the registrant of the trademark, could not deprive the natural persons, legal persons or other organizations whose goods were actually produced in the Aksu region of the right to properly use the place name in the certification mark.

A few days ago, The General Office of the State Council also issued a document requiring that the registration and use of collective trademarks of geographical indications be regulated, and that malicious litigation or disguised charges of "membership fees" and "franchise fees" be resolutely restrained, which is actually aimed at possible fishing behaviors.

Having group standards and collective trademarks for geographical indications does not mean that jurisdiction can be extended. For the relevant specific enterprises, it first needs to comply with the national mandatory food safety standards, so as to operate legally, and the group standard of geographical indication is not a mandatory standard; Secondly, it can apply for the use of collective trademarks carried by geographical indications, or it may also have its own ordinary trademarks. There is the boundary between public brands and private brands, and there is also the choice of market players.

Source: National Business Daily