Shared-Use Trademarks for the Geographical Indications of Wine Products1 Mª del Mar Gómez Lozano2 Así fue cuando emprendimos viaje en coche a visitar a Severo y Nívea del Valle en las viñas, que para entonces estaban produciendo las primeras botellas de vino de exportación. Mi abuela consideró que Viña Paulina era un nombre demasiado criollo y quiso cambiarlo por algo en francés, para venderlo en los Estados Unidos, donde según ella nadie entendía de vinos, pero Severo se opuso a semejante trampa.3 Isabel Allende, Retrato en sepia, 2000 I. Introduction; II. The Labelling of Wine Products; III. The Legal Basis for the Use of Shared Trademarks; IV. The Fairness in the Use of Shared Trademarks; V. Bibliography. I. INTRODUCTION This paper aims to provide information on the system of shared-use trademarks in Spain and its main keys, while showing that the reality of this type of distinctive signs, despite being based on the right of exploitation of registered trademarks held by their owner, may not only be a practice that generates confusion among consumers, but also a strategy that undermines the value of geographical indications as distinctive signs of wine products. As a reflection from the academic sphere, this paper intends to assess whether the currently permitted practice in Spanish agri-food legislation of authorising the use of 1 Paper written within the framework of Project DER2017-86831-R “Competition, Intellectual Property and Consumer Protection in the Agro-Food Sector”, of which Professor Fernando Carbajo Cascón, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Salamanca, is principal investigator. 2 Senior lecturer of Commercial Law, University of Almeria. 3 “(…) as she did when we made a trip by carriage to visit Severo and Nívea del Valle at the vineyards, which by then were producing the first wines for export. My grandmother thought that Viña Paulina sounded too local and wanted to change it for something in French to sell it in the United States, where, according to her, no one understood about wine, but Severo was opposed to that kind of ruse.” Allende, I. (2000). Portrait in Sepia, Peden, M. S. (trans.), HarperCollins, p. 26.
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