Wine Law

13 area 24 . Therefore, a trademark that contains or consists of such indications has to be filed by an applicant able to guarantee the harvest and vinification at that place 25 . Otherwise, the trademark will be of a nature so as to deceive the public. The link between the product, the land and the trademark is an indissoluble link. As a consequence, the assignment of the sign will also be subject to these requirements and will not be detachable from the exploitation. The trademark constitutes an ancillary part of the exploitation. 3) This mandatory connection with the land prohibits the mere inclusion of a PDO or a GI in a trademark that is not limited to products from the geographical area in question. Therefore, “the ground for refusal laid down in Article 7(1)(j) of Regulation No 40/94 applies without it being necessary to consider whether the marks for which registration are sought are of such a nature so as to deceive the public or not, or whether they lead to a likelihood of confusion regarding the origin of the product ” 26 . As a result, TEU has upheld the refusal to register trademarks, where a PDO or geographical indication is entirely reproduced in a complex trademark, such as “Tempos Vega Sicilia” in consideration of Sicilia , an Italian designation of origin, protected and registered in the European Union to designate wines from the island region of Sicily 27 , but also where a PDO or GI is entirely reproduced and clearly identifiable in the sign, such as “Lembergland” in consideration of the “GI Lemberg” protected in the European Union for wines from South Africa under a bilateral convention between the European Union and the Republic of South Africa 28 . 4) Nonetheless, as regards comparable goods (which has to be understood restrictively and as referring to all types of wines not complying with the product specification of the protected name), the protection is wider than the mere reproduction and applies under ARTICLES 102 and 103.2 of EU Regulation 1308/2013 against: “ (a) any direct or indirect commercial use of that protected name (…); 24 Article 93 of EU Regulation 1308/2013; The DOs and GIs protected in the EU are listed in the E-Ambrosia data-base. 25 See French Supreme Court No. 05-21.798, 30 May 2007, Château des Barrigards; No. 11–28.654 & No. 12–10.185, 12 February 2013, Maison Ginestet 26 TEU 9 February 2017, Bodegas Vega Sicilia T-696/15, §20; TEU 11 May 2010, Abadía Retuerta “ Cuvée Palomar ” T-237/08 §§119-120. 27 See footnote 23. 28 TEU 14 July 2015, Genossenschaftskellerei Rosswag T-55/14.