244 Geographical Indication Products Have Been Recognized and Guaranteed by China and Europe

On January 18, China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) showed that China and Europe continue to strengthen cooperation on geographical indications and have achieved mutual recognition and protection of 244 products in total so far.

The China-EU Landmark Geographical Indications Agreement is the first comprehensive and high-level bilateral treaty on geographical indications signed by China. Recently, the second batch of China-EU list of mutual recognition has made new progress. CNIPA accepted 175 applications for geographical indications protection from the EU, covering 22 EU member states such as Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Greece, with product categories concentrated in 5 major categories such as wine, spirits, meat products, dairy products and olive oil, etc. Also, European Commission has accepted 175 applications for geographical indications, including Jinhua ham, Luzhou old cellar wine, Fuling squash, Ningxia wolfberry and etc., which cover wine, spices, tea, meat products, Chinese herbs, handicrafts, fruits, etc. It is expected that by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the scale of mutual recognition and protection of geographical indications between China and Europe will be steadily expanded to about 550.