Wine Law

16 way forward would have been either to dismiss the geographical indication for wine or respect the horizontal solution as defined by the 2012 Regulation. The agreed legal formulation for wine will eventually distort the concept of geographical indication that would have been sensible to protect. 3. The Nebulous Formulation of the Legal Status: Its Public-Law Nature We have alluded above to the legal uncertainty hanging over the legal nature of designations of origin, traditionally viewed as private-law signs. Most certainly, from the moment a designation of origin is approved by a legal entity, the name attached to it becomes a sign protected under industrial property law. Unfortunately, this private-law nature has been attributed beyond this distinctive sign to the singular designation of origin status itself, the legal status and the specific name or sign attached to it being clearly diverse concepts. It is imperative, I believe, that the prevailing stance on this should be revisited. Unsurprisingly, some have claimed in France that “the legal definition of protected designations of origin [the term traditionally used across the Pyrenees] is hotly disputed by French scholars”, but “draws nobody’s attention outside of France” 25 . Unlike the prevailing view in the Spanish doctrine, it appears to be more sensible, notwithstanding the distinctive sign nature of the protected name, to view the designation of origin as a public-law legal status. This would involve drawing a distinction between the nature (and legal holder) of a right and the legal act by the authority that confers such exceptional right . To put it differently, it seems patent that the names attached to the designation of origin are a different type of distinctive sign and, therefore, may be granted an intellectual property right… for the benefit of whoever is concerned. This approach is reflected by norms and regulations at all levels — international, Europe-wide or national — with various degrees of mastery, as they project the intellectual right onto the name protected, as they should, or onto the legal status. I would dare to claim that, in some 25 Vid. Caroline LE GOFFIC (2010) in La protection des indications géographiques. France-Union Européenne- États Unis , Litec, París, p. 234.