독일에서의 지리적 표시의 보호

The Protection of Geographical Indications in Germany

The protection of geographical indications of source in the WTO/TRIPS is still far from a solution acceptable to all Member States. Unless special regulations of national or European law or bilateral agreements apply to specific product categories, German law grants to geographical indications an essentially unfair competition protection which has been entered into the Trademark Act in force since 1 January 1995. Simple geographical indications are protected against misleading use as to their geographical origin. Qualified geographical indications are protected in addition against misleading use as to the quality of the designated goods or services. The protection of geographical indications with a particular reputation (appellations of origin) extends to all cases of exploitation of and prejudice to such reputation. Geographical indications may also be protected under trademark law, i.e. as collective marks and, in case they have acquired secondary meaning through use, as individual trademarks. In this paper, I have studied the roles of German Trade Mark Law in substantial ways and the scheme to improve the protection system for geographical indication.