Study on EU Member States´ potential for protecting craft and industrial geographical indications

Geographical indications (GIs) confer intellectual property rights on product names whose unique qualities are intrinsically linked to their place of production. These indications identify goods as originating from a specific country, region, or locality, where a given quality, reputation, or characteristic of the product is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. While the European Union (EU) had previously established a GI sui generis protection scheme for wines, spirits, agricultural products and foodstuffs, a harmonised protection system for craft and industrial products (such as jewellery, textiles, glass, porcelain, etc.) at the EU level was generally lacking (3). This changed on 18 October 2023, with the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 (4) on the protection of craft and industrial GIs (hereinafter the 'CIGI Regulation'), which entered into force on 16 November 2023, and will be fully applicable as of 1 December 2025. Among others, the Regulation stipulates that the examination and registration of craft and industrial geographical indications (CI GIs) will occur in two phases, the first one at national level, and the second one at European Union level. Each Member State must appoint a national competent authority to oversee the national phase of the registration process (Article 12). However, the European Commission may grant a derogation from this obligation to Member States that lack a national sui generis system for CI GIs and have a low local interest in protecting GIs for CI products (Article 19).