Greece Registers Four PDO and PGI Olive Oils as Intellectual Property

Four Greek extra vir­gin olive oils with pro­tected geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tors from the European Union have received inter­na­tional intel­lec­tual prop­erty pro­tec­tion.

Kalamata PDO, Sitia Lasithiou Crete PDO, Kolymvari Chania Crete PDO and Lakonia PGI have been reg­is­tered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Protected Designation of Origins (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) are two European Union-wide cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that pro­tect tra­di­tion­ally-pro­duced spe­cial­ties from par­tic­u­lar regions.

According to Sevitel, the asso­ci­a­tion of the Greek olive oil indus­try, which was the dri­ving force behind the ini­tia­tive, the WIPO umbrella will fur­ther pro­tect the oils from coun­ter­feit­ing, imi­ta­tion and other uncom­pet­i­tive prac­tices.

“Once they have been reg­is­tered by WIPO, PDO and PGI prod­ucts are fully pro­tected by all con­tract­ing par­ties, cov­er­ing up to 56 coun­tries,” George Okinomou, Sevitel’s gen­eral direc­tor, and Vasiliki Bakali, Sevitel’s lawyer, told Olive Oil Times.

“Contracting par­ties to the Geneva Act [which allows the inter­na­tional reg­is­tra­tion of geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions] must pro­vide legal means to pre­vent the use of an inter­na­tion­ally reg­is­tered appel­la­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion in respect of goods of the same kind, or goods that are not of the same kind,” they added.

“They must also pro­vide legal means to pre­vent any use amount­ing to the imi­ta­tion of an appel­la­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion,” Okinomou and Bakali con­tin­ued.

Preventing the coun­ter­feit­ing of PDO and PGI prod­ucts is a global chal­lenge, and European and inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions rou­tinely pros­e­cute offend­ers.

An anti-fraud oper­a­tion led by Europol and Interpol in 57 coun­tries in 2016 uncov­ered more than 11,000 tons of coun­ter­feit goods, includ­ing large quan­ti­ties of oil, labeled as ​“extra vir­gin,” which had been inten­tion­ally mis­la­beled or adul­ter­ated to appear gen­uine.

In 2018, a sim­i­lar inves­ti­ga­tion in 36 coun­tries on four con­ti­nents dis­man­tled entire net­works of coun­ter­feit goods pro­duc­tion. In that same year, another inter­na­tional oper­a­tion uncov­ered almost 10,000 tons of coun­ter­feit prod­ucts in 61 coun­tries, includ­ing a large vol­ume of olive oil.

According to the Italian gov­ern­ment, coun­ter­feit foods are smug­gled glob­ally by mod­i­fy­ing the orig­i­nal con­tents of food or by mar­ket­ing prod­ucts whose appear­ance closely resem­bles the authen­tic cer­ti­fied prod­ucts, with names and titles that might appear legit­i­mate.

The Italian farm­ers asso­ci­a­tion, Coldiretti, esti­mates the global mar­ket’s value for coun­ter­feit Italian food at €100 bil­lion.

“This legal com­mit­ment taken by the con­tract­ing par­ties, most of them not belong­ing in the E.U., means that PDO and PGI prod­ucts are under a tough sys­tem of pro­tec­tion even out­side the E.U.,” Oikonomou and Bakali said. ​“If not pro­tected, the value of such prod­ucts can be eroded and con­sumers short-changed.”

The need for such improved pro­tec­tion is enhanced by the crit­i­cal role of PDO and PGI prod­ucts for the Greek econ­omy and in the coun­try’s renowned food pro­duc­tion tra­di­tions.

According to the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food, 31 Greek extra vir­gin olive oils have PDO or PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tions.

“PDOs and PGIs are worth pro­tect­ing not only because of their con­nec­tion to qual­ity, tra­di­tion and rep­u­ta­tion; they also make a very valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able rural devel­op­ment,” Oikonomou and Bakali said.

“In fact, for the pro­duc­ers, the exclu­sive right to use a prod­uct name leads to a higher price than for sim­i­lar prod­ucts in the same food cat­e­gory,” they added.

According to Oikonomou and Bakali, the European Union ​“has been doing great work through the years to estab­lish both a sys­tem of effec­tive processes to rec­og­nize and pro­tect local prod­ucts and pro­mote them in third coun­tries.”

“Were it not for the coor­di­nated acts of the E.U., we might not speak now about PDO or PGI prod­ucts,” they added.

The WIPO reg­is­tra­tion pro­vides more robust pro­tec­tion and empha­sizes how other inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions are lack­ing action, added the Greek experts.

“The global mar­ket is a very com­plex field where the com­pe­ti­tion of very dif­fer­ent and con­tra­dict­ing inter­ests on the one hand and the dif­fer­ent legal back­grounds, on the other hand, must be weighed through diplo­macy to end up with sus­tain­able solu­tions,” Oikonomou said.

“The pro­tec­tion given to geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions at the inter­na­tional level is con­sid­er­ably enhanced by the TRIPS Agreement,” he added. ​“However, I think that within the World Trade Organization, we need tougher rules to pro­tect qual­ity and regional prod­ucts.”

According to Oikonomou and Bakali, the WIPO reg­is­tra­tion for the four Greek PDO extra vir­gin olive oils is only the begin­ning.

“We think the impor­tance of ensur­ing the widest pro­tec­tion pos­si­ble to foods of excel­lence will push the other olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries to fol­low the same path,” they said. ​“Italy in 2014 was the first coun­try that applied for the pro­tec­tion of E.U.-certified extra vir­gin olive oils, with Sabina, Dauno, Terre di Siena and Terra d’Otranto.”

The WIPO reg­is­tra­tion process for the Greek extra vir­gin olive oils did not rep­re­sent a hur­dle, Oikonomou and Bakali added.

“Both the European Commission and the Greek author­i­ties gave us all the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion and guid­ance to achieve the pro­tec­tion of the olive oils within the Lisbon System [the E.U. treaty which includes denom­i­na­tion of ori­gin and their inter­na­tional reg­is­tra­tion],” they said.

“We sub­mit­ted to the Greek author­i­ties an appli­ca­tion along with the prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tions in English, and the rest was under­taken by both the Greek author­i­ties and the com­mis­sion,” Oikonomou and Bakali added. ​“It was nei­ther a com­pli­cated nor a long process.”

“We believe, given the suc­cess of the project, that more extra vir­gin olive oils will be reg­is­tered in the months to come,” they con­cluded.

• Agrotypos
• Interpol
• Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food