62 WINE LAW the law’s wording48 or the endorsement by the Constitutional Court. In turn, Maroño, in 2002, agreed with the Constitutional Court in that the institution of the designation of origin status should not be defined by its scope but rather by the double connection. However, Maroño recognises that the latter conditions the former, and, in so doing, admits its application to marble or stones – as long as its nature is due to the environment and not human intervention alone –, rejecting it, nevertheless, for industrial products such as carpets, tablecloths and, especially, services49. 5.3. Personal Assessment The efficiency of a legal instrument may well rely on how rigorously the law defines it. Moreover, the importance of history cannot be disregarded, as any law is consolidated and becomes well-established with it is application. Designations of origin are applied to agricultural products and foodstuffs (unprocessed products or subjected to basic treatments) and characterised, since its origins, by the close connection between the geographical environment and the product’s characteristics, the natural factors of which – as well as and above human factors – become decisive. Therefore, it does not seem appropriate to apply a designation of origin to other products that do not have such a relevant link, especially considering the DOs’ traditional nature. Evidently, for industrial products in general, the environment is largely irrelevant, even if the 1953 Regulatory Act by the Ministry for Energy and Industrial Strategy refers to products of this nature “with a manufacturing process inherently linked to a geographical place”. In any case, even if that process is deemed as “linked” (it could always be transported to or from it) to the relevant area, the added value it represents can only justify its protection – legitimate, no doubt – as an indication of origin (although the usual lack of public supervision over this status diminishes its commercial value) or, at best, as a geographical indication. Indeed, as already pointed out, the extension of the scope of this status to non-agricultural products, provided that there is evidence of a real connection, particularly due to the well-established human intervention, distinguishing it from the mere indication of origin, as well as favouring those 48 Indeed, Botana warns that Galicia’s lawmakers artfully resorted to the phrase “for the purpose of this Law” when defining its institution. It is evident that this is fallacious because “the purpose of this Law” targets stones from Galicia while bestowing them with a commercial advantage that the stones from other geographical areas do not have. 49 MAROÑO GARGALLO, M. M. (2002). op. cit., p. 68.
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