The legal protection of geographical indications and designations of origin serves the legitimate interests of consumers and producers and prevails over the legal protection of trademarks, according to the case law of the European Court of Justice

Abstract

The EU trade mark reform, culminating in the EU Trade Mark Regulation 1001/2017, has introduced a number of changes to the legal protection and registration of EU trade marks, but both the legislation and EU case law consistently set out provisions following the same direction as regards the legal relationship between EU trade marks and geographical indications, which follow the principles of the earlier legislation on the creation of the single market.