Sonja Spasojevic

THE SCOPE OF PROTECTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL DESIGNATION AND TRADITIONAL SPECIALITIES GUARANTEED

IN TERMS EU REGULATION 1151/2012

The author in this  paper analyzes the scope of protection of geographical designation and traditional specialities guaranteed in terms of the EU Regulation 1151/2012. The scope of protection of geographical designation has not significantly changed since the previous Decree 510/2006. However, the protection of traditional specialities guaranteed is significantly improved in comparison with former Regulation 509/2006. According to this Decree: “Registered names shall be protected against any practice liable to mislead the consumer”. According to current legislation, traditional specialities guaranteed are furthermore protected against any misuse, imitation or evocation. It remains unclear why the authors of the Regulation 1151/2012 did not predict protection for cases of unlawful use of translations of registered names or  the terms " style, type, method, as produced in, ‘imitation"  et al. Unauthorized user transfers the idea of the quality of traditional specialities guaranteed enjoyed by consumers to its product that contains for example the expression " pizza according to the recipe Pizza Napoletana " or white cheese " type of mozzarella." Such products are often have lower quality than the original product. This results in a loss of confidence that consumers have in the original product and reducing the demand for these products.

Key words: geographical designation; designation of origin; geographical indication; traditional specialities guaranteed; legal protection.