Geographical indications and designations of origin, draft law for regulation and protection ready

2026-01-19 22:43:52, Aktualitet CNA

Geographical indications and designations of origin, draft law for regulation

A draft law of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation issued for consultation regarding geographical indications and designations of origin aims to bring the Albanian legal framework closer to European Union directives, which provides improvements in several aspects.

Referring to the report accompanying this project, there is a series of interventions aimed at resolving several impasses related to law enforcement and protection.

"Unlike the existing Law 9947, which dealt superficially with the group of producers, which constitutes the main subject of submitting requests for registration of geographical indications, the draft law devotes a special place and importance to the group of producers. The draft law regulates in detail the status of the group. Thus, the draft law defines what a group of producers is, which producer can be part of it; determines the case when a single producer can be considered a group of producers, and so on. All these issues related to the group of producers are addressed and regulated for the first time in the draft law, thus completing the legal framework in this regard," the report states.

The same underlines that a number of improvements have been made regarding the procedure to be followed and the documents required to be submitted for the registration of a geographical indication, presenting a clear and properly structured picture for the registration, amendment and repeal of a geographical indication.

According to the government, after registration, the geographical indication gains protection and this protection has found appropriate regulation in the draft law, which, on the one hand, speaks and highlights the rights of the holder of the geographical indication, and, on the other hand, sets out prohibitions on other persons and producers from using the protected geographical indication.

"Therefore, the draft law attaches particular importance to measures to protect geographical indications and designations of origin and the rights of their owners from infringements by speculators and market manipulators."

In this regard, the draft law provides for the rights of owners of geographical indications and designations of origin that are violated by infringing actions to file lawsuits, present evidence and secure it, request the adoption of interim measures to prevent an infringement, remove from circulation, confiscate and place under control goods that are suspected of infringing rights, and so on," the report states./ Monitor.al