Wine Law

82 WINE LAW of the so-called “bank of bubbles” without the intervention of the Judicial Authority. These cases clearly show the importance of the daily concrete action of collective bodies and the need for deeper cooperation between Consortia and institutions, as well as the protection of collective geographical trademarks, trademarks of certification and traditional designations, which requires the same efforts, especially for the foreign market. Furthermore, this strategy’s effectiveness also depends on the cooperation among the States and international organisations – the reason for the European Union, including Italy, strongly supporting the signature of international agreements, aimed at protecting DOs and GIs. As such, on 26 February 2020, the Geneva Act of the 2015 Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications finally entered into force18. This new international agreement allows for the international registration of geographical indications through a single registration procedure before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This internationalisation process of the protection of DOs and GIs is fundamental, especially for countries, such as Italy, which export their products all over the world. The cooperation among several institutions and police authorities grants to the protection of DOs and GIs a substantially higher degree of effectiveness, as has happened on 30 June 2020, when the Italian investigative authorities, with the critical support of Europol, managed to discover an international network of counterfeited wine, infringing, in particular, Italian DOs and GIs. The infringed products were sold through online platforms in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and the United States. On a final note, all the analysed instruments and strategies, which have been improving in the recent years, always require the unavoidable attention of consumers, who are the final recipients of the qualitative characteristics of the products bearing Designations of Origin and Geographical Indications. The moment of consumer’s choice constitutes the concrete parameter, which allows to verify the effectiveness of the entire system of DOs and GIs’ protection. In this sense, it has to be remembered that all the laws and regulations mentioned above aimed to preserve a rich cultural heritage and, consequently, a consumption choice, especially for wine products, is also a cultural choice. 18 See: https://www.wipo.int/lisbon/en/news/2020/news_0001.html#:~:text=The%20Geneva%20Act %20of%20the%20Lisbon%20Agreement%2C%20adopted%20May%2020,certain%20intergovernmental %20organizations%2C%20including%20the.

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