Anti-Unfair Competition Law From Perspective Of Research On The Protection Of Geographical Indications

Geographical indication is one of the intellectual property rights like trademark, patent right and copyright, all of which are provided protection in Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") of World Trade Organization ("WTO") by all WTO members. While as a commercial mark for identification, geographical indication not only indicates the geographical surroundings of a commodity, symbolizes special qualities and merits of it, but also represents achievements after creative work and colossal commercial profits behind their qualities and merits, so geographical indication is of great importance not only to the producer but also to the customer. Geographical indication is a kind of intangible property with tremendous economic interest, thus becomes popular among more and more countries.China's Trademark Law which was revised in 2001 posed the concept of geographical indications first time and did initial protection. On the basis of the analysis of geographical indication concept, researches into its expressions of diversification character, region character, no transfer possession character, weak monopolization and exclusiveness, subject collectivity, and so on character. And it also can be divided into natural element decided type, culture element decided type and compound elements decided type. So it is quite different from other intellectual property objects especially the trademark. The trademark and other laws are implemented in our country now to protect the geographical indications, but this system has multilateral management, obscure quality and low level protection such abuses. The anti-unfair competition law legislation mode can include many kinds of expressions of the geographical indications, and it is not based on the premise of register. That accord with the protection aim and quality of the geographical indications, meanwhile, it's more convenient to manage to reach the protection level that TRIPS demands. Therefore, at the present stage of our country and under the condition that there aren't specialized geographical indication legislations, it is of great practical significance to exert the complementary and supplementary function of Anti-unfair Competition Law on geographical indication.