It appears that the Laguiole saga [covered by The IPKat here, here, here and here] is much from over: the Appeal Court of Aix-en-Provence has just lately cancelled the registration of “Couteau Laguiole” (Laguiole knife) as a French geographical indication (GI) as a result of the shoppers would be confused as to the knives’ geographical origin.
Background
Knife manufacturing century within the French commune of Laguiole started within the early nineteenth century. As demand grew, Laguiole outsourced some manufacturing to Thiers, a famend cutlery centre, within the 1850s. The two communes collaborated carefully on Laguiole knife manufacturing from at the very least 1868, as proven by historic proof submitted to the INPI. Laguiole’s cutlery trade halted in 1918 because of World War I casualties, however Thiers continued making Laguiole knives all through the twentieth century.
Ruling
The Aveyron Association of Producers of Knifes from Laguiole (Aveyron being the executive unit to which Laguiole belongs), the municipality of Laguiole, and the French Federation of Industrial and Artisanal Geographical Indications (FFIGIA) initiated lawsuits towards “Couteau Laguiole”.
Yet, the Appeal Court of Aix-en-Provence agreed with the plaintiffs that buyers would be confused as to the geographical origin of “Couteau Laguiole” as they might not make the reference to Thiers. The Appeal Court relied on a public survey performed by INPI through the registration stage, whereby the shoppers didn’t hyperlink the popularity of those knives with the world of Thiers.
Moreover, opined the Appeal Court, the product protected by the GI “Couteau Laguiole” shouldn’t be sufficiently outlined by the product specs: these vaguely point out fashions, universes and households of knives with out a lot element.
All in all, the Appeal Court discovered that there was inadequate proof to show that “Couteau Laguiole” is characterised by conventional know-how or a popularity which might be attributed basically to the geographical space outlined within the specs. INPI’s determination to register this GI was thus cancelled by the Appeal Court of Aix-en-Provence.
The three plaintiffs additionally sued INPI for a number of procedural errors, a call on which can be taken in a separate continuing in 2025.
Perspective
Similarly to what occurred within the early days of GIs for wines, spirits and agricultural merchandise, this Kat foresees a surge in litigation over the GIs for craft and industrial merchandise. The Laguiole case exhibits that even historic proof may be interpreted in another way: had been the municipalities of Laguiole and Thiers cooperating collectively to provide the knives (as argued by Thiers) or had been the Thiers producers mere subcontractors, unknown to most of the people (as argued by Laguiole)?
In the meantime, the French couteliers ought to higher hurry with the registration, as they only have till December 2026 to transform their French GI into an EU-wide one.