The Interface and Conflict Between Geographical Indications and Trademark Regime

Abstract: In today’s increasingly interconnected and competitive world, where trade is carried out across continents and products travel vast distances, the question of origin holds greater significance than ever. There arose a need for distinguishing products for commercial and trade benefits. Intellectual property in its bid to protect the rights of producers of commodities and services also consumers envisage the legality of trademark and geographical indications. This being part of industrial property primarily serves as identifiers of products and rights to commercial exploitation. The paper seeks to establish that the relationships between trademark and geographical indications are delicate, overlapping, and problematic within a given territory or country and between countries. As legal devices that regulate the communication of the origination of products and exclusive rights to certain words or signs, trademark indicates commercial origin while geographical indicator portrays geographical origin. Sequel to the foregoing, there exists an interface generally and conflicts ensue where these subject matters overlap. This births the focus of contention in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and in the implementation of agreed trade obligations. The laws of different jurisdictions seek to balance the stifling and battle of this concept to exist side by side. This demands by exposition, a nuanced understanding of their function, legal frameworks internationally and nationally, their intersection and differences.

Keywords: Trademark, Geographical Indication, Interface, Conflicts