Without parmesan, but with feta cheese. The nuances of the law on "geographical" brands
Since January 1, 2020, Ukraine has improved the mechanisms for the legal protection of geographical indications. Such a need is long overdue, and in the Agreement on Association between Ukraine and the EU more than one article is devoted to the protection of geographical indications.
Ukraine pledged to stop violating European geographical indications of a whole group of alcoholic beverages by 01.01.2026 (in particular, cognac, champagne, Armagnac, Calvados, Tokai). And the production of cheeses with the names feta, roquefort, parmesiano reggiano must cease until 01.01.2023.
A geographical indication refers to the name of a place that identifies a product that originates from a specific geographical place and has a special quality, reputation or other characteristics, mainly due to this geographical place of origin, and at least one of the stages of production of which (manufacture (production) and / or processing and / or preparation) is carried out in a specific geographical area.
To obtain legal protection, a geographical indication must be registered in the appropriate register. His lead in electronic form. The right to state registration of a geographical indication belongs to the association of persons who produce goods and / or produce and / or process raw materials for goods in a specified geographical location, the particular quality, reputation or other characteristics of which are determined by this geographical location. Such an association does not put forward specific requirements regarding the legal form or its composition. Moreover, even one natural or legal person has the right to register a geographical indication. However, this is possible under two conditions:
1) it is the only producer who produces goods in this geographical location and / or extracts and / or processes raw materials for the goods and wishes to file an application for registration of a geographical indication;
2) the geographical territory in which production (extraction), processing, preparation of goods is carried out, has characteristics that differ significantly from the surrounding territories, or the characteristics of the goods differ from goods produced in the adjacent territories.
The application must be submitted to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine (Department of Intellectual Property Development). This can be done both personally and by using the services of a patent attorney or other authorized representative. Such an application is made in Ukrainian and it must contain:
1) an application for registration of a geographical indication (name of the place of origin of goods). Here indicate the applicant (s), his address and specially authorized bodies (they will be determined by the Government), which check the conformity of the goods with the specifications of the goods;
2) the specification of the goods, agreed by a specially authorized body;
3) a document which sets out:
- the main provisions of the specification of the goods: the declared name, description of the goods, if appropriate, and special rules for packaging and labeling of goods, as well as a brief description of the boundaries of the geographical place where the goods are produced and / or processed;
- a description of the relationship of the product with the geographical environment or geographical place of origin of the product, including special provisions for the description of the product or methods of its production, confirming this relationship.
If the applicants are foreigners or stateless persons, then instead of the specification they submit documents confirming the legal protection of the declared geographical indication in the respective foreign state or the acquisition of rights to such an indication on the basis of fair use. For filing an application you need to pay a fee - 1600 UAH.
If the examination of the application has completed positively, the applicant must pay the state registration fee and the publication fee for such a decision. The size of the state fee depends on the residence of the applicant. If an individual / legal entity permanently resides on the territory of Ukraine, the state duty will be 85 UAH, and in the case of the applicant's permanent residence outside Ukraine - 200 US dollars.
The applicant's excessive frugality may play a trick on him. If he does not provide an examination of documents on payment within three months from the date of receipt of the decision on the registration of a geographical indication, registration of a geographical indication is not carried out, and the application is considered withdrawn.
