U.S. wins WTO case against EU over food product names

U.S. wins WTO case against EU over food product names    The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of the United States in a case against the European Union’s protections for certain geographical food names.
   A WTO panel agreed with the United States that Europe’s “geographic indications” regulation discriminates against U.S. products and producers, and is therefore contrary to WTO rules. The panel also agreed with the United States that Europe could not, under the WTO rules, deny U.S. trademark owners their rights.
   “This is a big win for American farmers and food processors,” said U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick in a statement Tuesday.
   “We brought this case because we believed that, under WTO rules, U.S. farmers, ranchers and other food producers should have the same access to protection for ‘geographic indications’ as European food producers,” he added. “Europe clearly failed to provide this access.”
   “Geographic indications” indicate the geographic origin of a product, where the product has some attribute or reputation associated with that origin. Examples could include Parma ham, Roquefort cheese, Florida oranges, Vidalia onions, and Idaho potatoes. The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, define geographic indications as “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographic origin.”
   The United States protects geographical indications through rights provided to private rightholders under the U.S. trademark system. By contrast, the European Community has a regulatory regime for geographical indications, separate and apart from its trademark system, which depends in significant part on government intervention. It is this regime that the United States challenged in its dispute.
   For example, Parma ham producers in Italy can stop others from using the name “Parma” or similar names in the EU market, but the geographical indications regulation would not permit U.S. producers to do the same with respect to their products.
   The United States requested WTO dispute consultations on the EU’s geographical indications regulation in June 1999. On Aug. 18, 2003, the United States requested the establishment of a WTO panel, which issued a confidential draft interim report on Nov. 19, 2004.