Wine Law

5 Lisbon Agreement and the Geneva Act form what is commonly referred to as the “Lisbon System,” which provides an international system of registration for names identifying the geographic origin of products, including products of the vine. Nevertheless, even under the above international framework of protection of foreign geographical indications, countries are not required to extend protection to an indication that has become a common or generic term in their territory for a particular type of goods, regardless of their origin (such as brie, camembert cheddar cheeses 19 ). The reason for this is that the generic term has lost is distinctive function and the customary use of such a generic term is not really misleading, since it is commonly understood that it does not indicate the origin of goods but only their type. Article 24(6) of the TRIPS Agreement allows a WTO Member to disapply its provisions protecting geographical indications of other Members where the indication has become a customary term in common language for such goods or services in the territory of that Member 20 . Article 4 of the Madrid Agreement permits the courts to decide what appellations, on account of their generic character, are not protected 21 . The Lisbon System, however, protects appellations of origin and geographical indications that have been granted protection in another country (based on the international registration) from subsequently becoming generic as long as they are protected as such in their country of origin (Article 6 of the Lisbon Agreement and Article 12 of the Geneva Act). In European Union law, geographical indications for food and wine comprise of two categories: protected designations of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indications (PGI). The two categories are distinguished primarily by the requirements concerning how much of the product’s raw materials must come from the area or how much of the production process must take place within the specific region. The link with the region is much stronger in the case of protected designations of origin than in the case of protected geographical indications; however, both types enjoy the same level of legal protection 22 . Both indications can be protected at the EU level under the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in 19 K. Shimura, p. 134. 20 L. Monten, p. 321. 21 M. Blakeney, p. 13. 22 A. F. Ribeiro de Almeida, p. 642.