Wine Law

7 3. Relationship between Designations of Origin, Geographical Indications, Collective Trademarks and Certification Trademarks Geographical indications and designations of origin are not the unique legal instruments foreseen for the protection and identification of qualitative productions and for the consumers’ protection. Indeed, especially after the recent reform of the Italian IP Code – by Law Decree No. 15, of 20 February 2019 – rules on DOs and GIs have to be read along with collective trademarks and certification trademarks. Collective trademarks, as ruled by Article 11 of the Italian IP Code, as well as Article 74 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, are distinctive signs, registered by associations of producers and Consortia, whose primary function is to guarantee certain characteristics, in terms of quality, origin and production. These collective bodies may grant the right to use the sign to producers, who respect the requirements established by the use Regulation of the Collective Trademarks. It is rather clear that collective trademarks significantly differ from traditional trademarks, whose primary function is to indicate the entrepreneurial origin of the product and to guarantee its recognition among consumers. In this sense, collective trademarks do share some features with designations of origin and geographical indications. In particular, the resemblances are deeper in case of geographical collective trademarks, ruled by Article 11(4) of the Italian IP Code and Article 74(2) of Regulation (EU) No. 2017/1001. These letters constitute an exception to the general prohibition to register, as a trademark, a geographical name, which is linked to the product. In this case, the geographical sign is connected to the protection of the qualitative characteristics of the product, related to the territory of origin. In any case, it is worth mentioning that there are some important differences between collective trademarks and DOs and GIs. First of all, designations of origin and collective trademarks may be used by any producer of the relevant geographical area, who respects the requirements established by the specification of production. On the contrary, collective trademarks may be used exclusively by the members of the collective bodies, which own the registered distinctive signs. Moreover, collective trademarks are subject to revocation for vulgarisation. On the other hand, Article 103 of the Regulation (EU) No.