New Requirements for the Product Specifications of Products with Protected Product Names
- Finland
- 07/02/2009
- Roschier, Attorneys Ltd. - Finland
As of 1 May 2009, the product specifications of products included in the EU Register of Traditional Specialities Guaranteed on Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs shall in accordance with Regulations 509/2006 and 510/2006 include a related EU logo or a reference to the fact that the product name is protected. In the EU, protection for product names may be applied for a product that has been manufactured in a traditional way in a certain geographical area, or by using a certain manufacturing method for several generations.
The purpose of the product indications applied in the EU is to protect established names of agricultural products and foodstuffs against misuse and imitations. For the consumer, the protection is a guarantee that the origin, raw material and production methods are known.
There are three schemes for protecting product names in the EU. PDO (“protected designation of origin”) and PGI (“protected geographical indication”) guarantee the production and manufacture of the products in a certain traditional geographical area. The third scheme, TSG (“traditional speciality guaranteed”), protects the traditional manufacturing method of the product. These schemes apply to all Member States, which means that the registered names are protected in the whole Community territory.
So far, five product names that originate in Finland and more than 800 product names in the EU have been protected by these schemes. The protected names include, inter alia, Italian parma ham and Finnish traditional reindeer meat from Lapland.
