Establishment of “Registered Geographical Indications protection,” system 2013

MAFF(Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan) announced on August, 2011.
Hideo IWAI(Partner, Patent Attorney)

The Japanese government has decided to introduce a new system for registration of farm and marine products. The farm and marine products which have qualities that are up to a certain standard may be registered under the new system. The registered products will be officially certificated by the Japanese government as brand products of quality. The new system aims to promote the recent inactive export of farm and marine products and to control the unauthorized use of trade names. The Japanese government has scheduled the enforcement of the new system for FY2013.

The new system will register only products obtained by unique techniques and provided with a specific regional taste, “atmosphere”, flavour, etc.

A similar registration system has already been adopted in European and Asian countries, e.g. EU member countries as well as Hong Kong and Korea.