On Legal Protection System Of Geographical Indication In China

As a competitive resource of trade and exchange,geographical indication carries great economic value.As an internal image of the region,the publicity card contains infinite cultural power and plays an important role in international trade,regional development,rural revitalization and other aspects.Resources of the geographical indication are rich,and there are various kinds of characteristic products of local indication in our country.Since Trips Agreement has been signed,we have begun to undertake the obligation to protect the geographical indication by legislation,and many normative documents have been issued successively.However,geographical indication has only more than 30 years of development history in our country after all,and the theoretical study and practical application are not mature.There are still many problems in the protection of geographical indication.The first problem is that legal protection in the field of geographical indication trademark registration is seriously insufficient,and the registration rules of geographical indication trademark need to be improved.The collective trademark of geographical indication or certification trademark has a large loophole in the qualification of the applicant,the demarcation of the range of appellation marking and the examination of the substantive elements,resulting in widespread registration.However,this key link is often neglected.The legal provisions of the registration of geographical indication trademark should be improved,and the restrictive conditions such as the type,identity and purpose of the registration of geographical indication trademark should be relaxed as appropriate.The unified scope of geographical indication shall be delimited for the same geographical indication,and the expert examination team of geographical indication trademark registration shall be strengthened to remedy chronic problems in the field of geographical indication trademark registration from the source.The essence of all the problems of geographical indication can be attributed to the right to confirm geographical indication.Based on the complexity of the content of geographical indication right and the history of legal protection of geographical indication,it is biased to define the nature of geographical indication right as a single public right or private right.The nature of geographical indication rights should be classified according to the different objects of current legal protection of geographical indications.Geographical indications with registered trademarks should fully comply with the property of private rights,and geographical indications with geographical indications products or agricultural products should be identified as public rights.In view of the parallel protection mode of "trademark legislation + special legislation of departmental regulations" adopted at present stage of the geographical indication,the main and secondary aspects of the application of the law are unclear,the conflict in the operation of the power is constant,the right protection is confused repeatedly,but the protection mode itself has advantages and disadvantages,so it is not suitable to be biased any one but to leave one alone.Therefore,it should adjust the current protection mode.The coordination between the two protection modes should be enhanced,the protection mode of trademark law should be retained,the Geographical Indication Protection Law with legal effect should be legislatively formulated,and the relationship between the two should be mainly protected by special law.In this way,it can not only match the nature of geographical indication rights differentiated by different types of regions,but also help realize the integration of various protection means at present.Finally,a complete and complementary geographical indication legal protection system can be constructed.