【Dharma Eye View】
As the saying goes, "Fifteen is a year."
This year has not yet ended, Liu Yingping is already busy planning this year's fungus planting plan.
Raising money, renting land, hiring people, installing water pipes... a whole lot of things, he needs to take care of it.
Liu Yingping is from Yao Town Community, Caoping Town, Zhashui County, Shaanxi Province.
In 2021, their cooperative will produce 1.3 million bags of black fungus in one year.
A cooperative with 150 mu of land can employ hundreds of people during busy farming seasons.
In March, the planting season of fungus has arrived.
Liu Yingping said that the sales of tussah fungus have been getting better and better in recent years, and this year will also be a bumper year!
"Small fungus, big industry".
On April 20, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping, who was inspecting in Shaanxi Province, praised the eucalyptus fungus on the camera of the mobile phone.
"In 2021, the output of Zhashui fungus will be around 4,000 tons, driving the income of ordinary people to increase by 250 million yuan." Li Yuan, president of Zhashui Pollution-free Green Agricultural Products Development Association, told reporters.
As the holder of the geographical indication certification mark of "Zhushui fungus", the association has continued to promote the brand cultivation and industrial development of Zhashui fungus for many years.
Today, the name of Zhashui fungus is getting louder and louder. In addition to scientific and technological promotion and policy support, it is also inseparable from the cultivation and protection of geographical indications.
Geographical indication is an identification consisting of "origin + commodity name" and is an independent intellectual property type.
Datong yellow flowers, Anji white tea, Jinhua ham, Korla fragrant pears, wine at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain... These well-known local products now all have a common identity - geographical indication products.
"Geographical indications are the most closely related intellectual property rights in my country," said Wan Yong, director of the Intellectual Property Law Teaching and Research Section of the Law School of Renmin University of China.
According to statistics, as of August 2021, my country has approved nearly 2,500 geographical indication products, and approved more than 6,000 registrations of geographical indications as collective trademarks and certification marks, with a related output value exceeding one trillion yuan.
The development of characteristic industries of geographical indications has become a long-term plan for cultivating regional characteristic economy and realizing rich and prosperous agriculture.
The protection of geographical indications is to protect the characteristics of local products
"Geographical indications are geographical names plus specific commodities, emphasizing the origin of the products, and the quality and reputation of commodities are mainly determined by natural or human factors in the region." Judge Si Pin, Beijing Intellectual Property Court Hua told reporters.
Paying attention to the origin of commodities has a long history in my country.
As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, for Chinese herbal medicines in specific production areas, there was a naming method of "authentic medicinal materials".
In modern times, under the influence of the French wine industry, geographical indications have gradually evolved into a worldwide intellectual property protection system, mainly used to protect agricultural products, food, wine, handicrafts, etc. in specific production areas.
Si Pinhua said that geographical indications have local characteristics in terms of attributes, and the specific quality, reputation or other characteristics of the goods they mark are formed in a long history.
The protection of geographical indications by law is only a confirmation of this history.
"From this perspective, geographical indications are an effective carrier for promoting the development of regional characteristic economy, a strong support for promoting rural revitalization, and an important resource for enterprises to participate in market competition."
Zhashui County is named after the large number of oak trees.
The oak tree is an excellent tree species for growing black fungus. As early as more than 100 years ago, the local people began to grow the fungus on the oak tree.
But for a long time, Zhashui fungus has been "raised in a boudoir that no one knows".
Until 2000, the tussah fungus gradually opened up sales and became a high-quality agricultural product with a certain reputation in Shaanxi.
With the fame, there are many counterfeit and shoddy products on the market.
"In order to crack down on counterfeiting and protect the brand and quality of Zhashui fungus, the only way is to apply for a geographical indication certification mark." Li Yuan introduced that in 2012, with the efforts of the association and the local government, Zhashui fungus successfully applied for a geographical indication certificate trademark.
Small fungus began to glow with great energy.
In the process of poverty alleviation, Zhashui regards the fungus industry as the main industry for poverty alleviation.
The brand effect of tussah fungus is fully manifested, and the output has grown from several hundred thousand catties a year to nearly ten million catties.
Now, 8 local enterprises have applied for the use of the geographical indication certification mark of Zhashui fungus, and all local farmers' cooperatives who apply for the use of the trademark will be provided by the association free of charge.
"Geographical indication certification marks are exclusive and cannot be used without permission." Li Yuan said that geographical indications can protect brands more effectively, which is beneficial to prevent counterfeiting and shoddy products, as well as prevent high-quality products from being sold. The brand effect is abused and "is a good intellectual property legal weapon".
Zhashui County, by strengthening the protection of the certification mark of the geographical indication of Zhashui fungus, formulated the standards for Zhashui fungus products and technical regulations, established and improved the quality traceability, testing, and integrity systems of the fungus, which ensured the quality of the products and greatly improved the reputation. .
Punish GI "free-rider" and other infringements
"It's not that Yangcheng crab tastes good, so why live in Suzhou in this life?"
Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are known as "the king of crabs".
After becoming a geographical indication product, the conditions for the use of the name of Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs have been standardized, standing out among a wide variety of crab products.
However, in recent years, with the growing market gap, from "bath crabs" to "water crabs", counterfeit Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs have emerged one after another, and consumers are deeply troubled.
According to Si Pinhua, in practice, the acts that violate the legitimate rights and interests of geographical indication products mainly include forging or unauthorized use of geographical indications for publicity, production, and sales, and preemptively registering relevant geographical indications or signs similar to geographical indications as trademarks or registration. For the company name, etc.
In recent years, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has heard many civil infringement cases involving geographical indications.
Some geographical indication brands with obvious regional characteristics and significant benefits to farmers are frequently infringed, and the number of cases brought by industry associations of origin as rights defenders continues to increase.
On December 31, 2021, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Use of Geographical Indications" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan").
The "Plan" proposes to strengthen the supervision of geographical indication protection.
For the geographical indication products, high-value products, hot-selling products and products of mutual recognition and mutual guarantee in the demonstration area, strengthen the law enforcement and protection of illegal production and sales of the unauthorized use of geographical indications, and strictly regulate the marketing promotion and product packaging. Use of geographical indications; strengthen the regulation and crackdown on the use of free-riding, transliteration, word-translation, or marking "type", "variety", "style", and "imitation" of geographical indications on identical or similar products.
In my country, due to historical reasons, the protection of geographical indications adopts a two-track system, that is, through the trademark law, the collective mark, the certification mark protection mode, and the special law protection mode.
The latter includes the “Special Indication System for Geographical Indications” established by the State Intellectual Property Office, and the special indication system for “Geographical Indications for Agricultural Products” established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Wan Yong said that this kind of coexistence of trademark law protection and special law protection will cause the same product to apply for different geographical indication registration protection, there may be different rights holders, and it will also lead to duplication of registration review work and administrative resources. waste.
It is understood that among the 60 major countries and regions surveyed by the Agricultural Intellectual Property Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 47 have implemented special law protection.
"Geographical indications are the crystallization of the collective culture and wisdom of a region. It is very important to ensure that products using geographical indications meet relevant quality standards. The function of trademarks is mainly to indicate the source and prevent consumers from being confused. The function of quality assurance is not its main function. function." Wan Yong suggested reforming the GI protection system, formulating special GI administrative regulations, clarifying the responsibilities of GI management agencies, and improving GI protection procedures.
It is worth noting that the "Plan" also proposes to actively promote the special legislation of geographical indications, and improve the unified geographical indication protection system in which special protection and trademark protection are coordinated.
Beware of using geographical indications to "touch porcelain" for profit
Just because the word "Tongguan" was in front of the word "roujiamo" on the signboard, he became a defendant inexplicably.
At the end of 2021, merchants in some snack bars in Luoyang, Henan have "spread things".
Fortunately, after this trademark dispute was exposed by the media and the relevant departments intervened, the Tongguan Roujiamo Association issued a letter of apology, and many trademark infringement cases brought by the association were successively withdrawn.
This turmoil has finally ended, but the problems behind it are thought-provoking.
It is understood that "Tongguan Roujiamo" is a geographical indication registered as a collective trademark.
Is it legitimate for the Tongguan Roujiamo Association to go to various places to defend its rights?
"The legal owner of the geographical indication clearly has the right to prohibit the unauthorized use of its geographical indication by businesses outside the region, but it cannot simply use the geographical indication as an excuse to coerce others to pay the so-called 'membership fee'." Wan Yong pointed out that the geographical indication can prove A necessary link between a particular commodity and its place of origin.
Judging from the raw materials used in Tongguan Roujiamo, it seems that the specific quality of Roujiamo is due to the place "Tongguan".
Geographical indications are regional public resources, and the registrant of the collective trademark of geographical indications should be a local non-profit-making group, association or other organization.
The person in charge of the Third Civil Division of the Supreme People's Court pointed out when answering a reporter's question that individual associations and organizations using collective marks of geographical indications to obtain franchise fees have no basis in trademark law. Not supported.
"Judging from relevant reports, many acts of being warned, accused, and sued by trademark owners are actually legitimate uses of geographical indications. The 'touching porcelain rights protection' in this incident deviates from the intellectual property system to promote innovation and fairness The purpose of competition." Huang Ji, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that many defendants are small merchants and small and micro enterprises, and it is difficult to fight against malicious litigators, and it is easy to have the mentality of "spending money to buy peace".
He suggested that industry associations can give the majority of operators more confidence to say "no" to those who touch porcelain by issuing early warning information, providing consultation and guidance, and leading "groups" to defend their rights.
In response to the phenomenon of "touching porcelain" lawsuits using geographical indications, Si Pinhua believes that intellectual property education should be strengthened so that those who have the right to use geographical indications can exercise their rights in accordance with laws and regulations; The agency of the company strengthens the management, and increases the punishment for the relevant subjects of non-integrity litigation.
At present, many GI brands lack individuality, making it difficult to demonstrate product characteristics; some GI products have an incomplete quality system, inconsistent production standards, and inconsistent logo usage methods, which restrict the recognition and reliability of GIs.
Huang Ji believes that in daily operation and management, multiple parties are required to jointly maintain the brand value of geographical indications.
Government departments can deeply explore and cultivate geographical indication resources of "famous, special, excellent, new and rare", and promote the "dislocation competition" of different geographical indications; industry associations can issue production regulations for geographical indication products to ensure product quality stability; The farm-to-table quality traceability system enhances the market's trust in GI brands.
In this way, geographical indications can play the role of "protecting a product, driving a group of enterprises, strengthening an industry, enriching the people of one side, and promoting the development of one side".
(Reporter Jin Hao)