Geographical Indication in Brazil

The idea of connecting a good/service with its origin is old, although the use of the term “geographical indication” is recent. Since biblical times, it is possible to find references about the perception that producers and consumers had of certain special characteristics of some goods due to their origin. Officially, however, the first state intervention in the protection of a Geographical Indication occurred in the mid-18th Century, when the Portuguese government registered by decree the name “Porto” for wines, protecting local producers from unfair competition.

In Brazil, Law No. 9,279 of May 14, 1996, known as the Brazilian Industrial Property Law (LPI), regulated the matter, defining Geographical Indications as indication of provenance (IP) and denomination of origin (DO).

IP is the geographic name of a country, city, region, or location in a territory that has become known as a center of extraction, production, or manufacturing of a certain good, or provision of a certain service. And DO is the geographic name of a country, city, region, or location in a territory that designates the good or service whose qualities or characteristics are an exclusive or essential result of the geographic environment, including natural and human factors. It is important to underscore that the registration of a Geographical Indication acknowledges a pre-existing condition.

The Brazilian IP Law also sets forth, in the sole paragraph of art. 182, that “INPI shall establish the conditions for the registration of geographical Indications”.

In this regard, in order to avoid the improper use of a Geographical Indication for a certain good or service, the registration with INPI arises as a decisive factor to ensure the protection of the geographical name and, hence, to obtain differentiation in the market.