French Intellectual Property Code

A geographical indication is the name of a geographical area or a specific place used to designate a product, other than an agricultural, forestry, food or seafood product, which originates there and possesses a specific quality, a reputation or other characteristics that can be essentially attributed to that geographical origin. The conditions of production or processing of this product, such as cutting, extraction or manufacture, comply with a specification approved…

The application for approval or amendment of the specification is lodged with the Institut national de la propriété industrielle by a defence and management body, defined in article L. 721-4, representing the operators concerned. The approval decision is taken after : 1° Verification of the content of the specifications and the representativeness of the operators within the defence and management organisation; 2° Completion of a public enquiry, the procedures for…

The defence and management of a product benefiting from a geographical indication shall be ensured by a private body with legal personality. The same body may ensure the defence and management of several products. For each of the products for which a geographical indication is envisaged, the rules governing the composition and operation of the body must ensure that the operators concerned are representative. The defence and management tasks carried…

Any operator who so requests is automatically a member of the defence and management body as long as it complies with the approved specifications. An operator may only use a geographical indication if it is a member of the defence and management body for that geographical indication and is entered on the list of operators in the specification or on the list of operators updated and published in the Bulletin…

The defence and management body contributes to the general interest mission of preserving and promoting the territories, local traditions and know-how as well as the products derived from them. For each product benefiting from a geographical indication for which it ensures the defence and management, the body :

The specifications for a specific geographical indication: 1° The name thereof; 2° The product concerned; 3° The delimitation of the associated geographical area or specific place; 4° The quality, reputation, traditional know-how or other characteristics which the product concerned possesses and which may be essentially attributed to that geographical area or specific place, as well as the elements establishing the link between the product and the associated geographical area or…

I. – Without prejudice to articles L. 115-16 of the Consumer Code and L. 722-1 of this code, registered names are protected against: 1° Any direct or indirect commercial use of a registered name in respect of products not covered by the registration, where such products are comparable to those registered under that name or where such use makes it possible to take advantage of the reputation of the protected…

Compliance with the specifications by operators is monitored by conformity assessment bodies, which may be either inspection bodies or certification bodies, which benefit from accreditation issued by the national accreditation body referred to in article 137 of Law no. 2008-776 of 4 August 2008 on the modernisation of the economy, or by the national accreditation body of another Member State of the European Union, which is a member of the…

The detailed rules for the application of this section shall be laid down by decree in the Council of State.