There are two differences between a trademark and a geographical indication. Although both perform similar functions, we need both.
Brian M. Carney’s “What’s More American Than Parmesan Cheese?” (op-ed, March 25) mocks geographical indications (GI). He suggests that we don’t need GI because consumer protection and product identification can be better served by trademarks. You want your Parmesan cheese from the city of Parma to be recognized as such? Invent a logo, register it and get over it.
However, this shows quite clearly where the burden of bureaucracy lies. Mr. Carney thinks the hundreds of thousands of private firms in Europe producing GI-recognized products—from wine to cheese to cured meats—should invent a trademark and register it the world over. It sounds like a bureaucratic imposition to me.
There are two differences between a trademark and a GI. Although both perform similar functions, we need both. Anyone can come up with a new trademark, yet it took hundreds of years and generations to perfect Parmesan cheese. The GI protect a whole class of firms producing the same good product in a local economy, rather than a specific firm with a good idea. Traditionally, those firms didn’t use trademarks. Hence, the hundreds of free, private enterprises that make Parmesan cheese didn’t need one, yet they produced the same cheese. The regulation of GI is the manner in which Italy, France, the EU (and later the WTO) were able to combine historic craftsmanship in food and wine with a modern capitalist economy. GI and their regulation are tools that enhance fair competition for free enterprises that produce a good of defined quality, specific procedural standards, in a unique geographical area. Of course, the GI symmetrically protect consumers from scams.
We need lawyers and intellectual property specialists capable of defining what makes, for example, the Coca-Cola trademark unique, and to what extent I can be allowed to call my drink a quasi-cola. Mocking such details doesn’t make trademark or GI regulations any less important and any less meaningful as tools to protect freedom of enterprise and freedom of consumers.
Carlo Calenda
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Rome
