A Research On The Selection Of China's Geographical Indication Protection Pattern

Geographical Indication (hereinafter referred to as GI) is among the seven intellectual property rights protected by TRIPs. With the huge increase of trade business between countries and regions given the background of the world economic integration, GI as a sort of immaterial asset acquires more economic value. Our country enjoys a long history with abundant resources. A large number of special products are determined by the natural and cultural factor in the specific region. Many GIs have become famous brand name having great competitiveness and are of great economic significance. However, there's loopholes in the existing dual-system legislation protection pattern which induces clashes in the process of GI administration among various authorities, which eventually result as the fetter for the progress of GI protection. Therefore, study on the GI protection system is necessary and urgent so as to improve GI legislation and help promote the economic boom of China.This paper is written mainly with method of comparison and demonstration, introducing a great number of related stipulations of international treaties and internal laws of various countries, and reasoning with many factual instances. The following should be deemed as the integral parts of this paper: The first part studies on the basic theory of GI and points out the urgent need to protect GI. For that purpose, differentiation and discrimination of similar concept are conducted in order to acquire a correct definition of GI, which is followed by the analysis of GI's legal character.The second part is a survey on the international GI legislation. It is aimed to supply beneficial reference to China's legislation on GI. Two sub-parts are included. The fist sub-part illustrates from the angle of international treaties the history of international protection for GI, with the introduction of relevant rules set by Paris Convention for The Protection of Industrial Property,Madrid Agreement for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods, Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and Their International Registration as well as the TRIPs, while the latter sub-part makes comparison of internal legislation among different countries.The third part researches on the status quo of the legal protection for GI in China. Trademark Law Pattern and Special Law Pattern are studied on and advantage and disadvantage of both are analyzed together with examples of detailed cases, which lead to the conclusion that clashes of rights and misuse of GI exist in the current practice.The forth part focuses on the improvement of China's GI legal protection system on the basis of the former three parts. It points out the limitation of the dual protection system and the Trademark Law Protection Pattern, then land on the conclusion that China should choose the Special Law Protection Pattern and therefore formulate Law on the Protection for Geographical Indication as soon as possible. Detailed suggestions on the improvement of the legislation is put forward.