50 WINE LAW The fact that a producer of a given good, based in the protected geographical area, may not be allowed to market that product under a designation can only be explained if that legal status is governed as a publicly protected one. 7) Then, in line with the previous assertion, what legal nature should each governing body of any given designation have? – Although this is a highly contested issue and one on which Spanish law – national and regional – shows a degree of ambivalence (theoretically, the management may be entrusted to public or private bodies), the right way forward would be conceding its publiclaw nature, as it is consistent with that of sector authorities, instituted by law and not arising, strictly speaking, out of their members’ freedom to enter into agreements. It is worth mentioning that this is the solution that the current legislation is steering towards, so that most Regulatory Councils are to assume this type of public-law Authority. 8) Which jurisdiction will be qualified to hear disputes arising out of the management of the designation authority that would involve the State or a regional authority, in some shape or form, specifically regarding supervision and penalising powers? – It is patent that it should be the administrative jurisdiction, notwithstanding governing bodies finding themselves under private-law regulations in those areas of the operation where they do deal with the state or regional or local authorities. 9) Which legal status do protected geographical names have? – This is not a straightforward and settled issue; we will point out that both Spanish Law 6/201529, for cross-region geographical designations, and regional governments’ regulations governing designations under their remit, view protected names as public interests; whether this fully appropriates the peculiarities in the way they operate cannot be fully understood from the private-law’s perspective. The conclusion seems almost self-evident: viewing designations of origin as a public-law interest will render less relevant the otherwise indisputable nature as intellectual property of the geographical names associated with them. This, however, should not inhibit the categorisation of their governing bodies nor the legislative and executive powers exerted on those bodies and the names associated with them. In short, they are a public-law interest that makes use of a distinctive sign, a familiar framework of an industrial property right. 29 Official State Gazette no. 114, of 13 May 2015.
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