In September 2018, Legislative Decree No. 1397 was approved, incorporating geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed as elements of Industrial Property. Likewise, the Trademark Office from the Competition and Intellectual Property Agency – INDECOPI, was designated as the competent entity.
The incorporation of geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed are aimed at generating value for those products whose differentiation is based on geographical origin and boosting the promotion of Peru’s gastronomic offer, respectively. In this regard, on January 10, 2020 the Trademark Office published a proposal for its regulation.
Some interesting aspects in the published proposal are the following:
- The owner of the geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed is the Peruvian State.
- Geographical indications can be registered ex officio or at the request of natural or legal persons who are dedicated to the extraction, production or elaboration of the product or products that are intended to be protected by the Geographical Indication, as well as producer associations, including state, departmental, provincial or municipal authorities when it comes to geographical indications of their respective constituencies.
- Traditional specialities guaranteed can be registered ex officio or at the request of those who are directly engaged in the production, processing, or transformation of agricultural or food products whose name is to be registered.
- In the case of traditional specialities guaranteed, the registration procedure is quite fast: the examination lasts 5 business days and the opposition period for third parties is 10 business days. Likewise, the registration lasts for as long as the conditions that motivated it persist. Furthermore, the terms “Traditional Speciality Guaranteed ” or “ETG” (in Spanish) may be used on the labeling; however, this does not prevent anyone from using this name to refer to the traditional product.
- Regarding geographical indications, a Regulatory Council is established to verify compliance with the conditions of production and elaboration of the products covered by the geographical indication, guarantee origin, among other functions.
To date, the publication of comments from citizens, public and private entities is still awaited. Notwithstanding, we consider the proposal to be an excellent initiative by INDECOPI that seeks to promote the protection of our local resources.
Alejandro Castro Angulo
Lawyer – Managing Director