智慧財產權與鄉村發展──歐盟地理標示法的政治經濟分析

Intellectual Property for Rural Development:The Political Economy of the EU Law of Geographical Indications

歐盟農食品地理標示制度的建立始於1992年地理標示規章。該規章的制定乃市場整合的過程中來自以法國為首的傳統農食產品生產者的政治壓力與歐洲共同農業政策改革的新政策取向兩大背景因素交互激盪的結果。在歐盟政策網絡中，地理標示是食品品質計畫的一環。食品品質計畫本身則為歐盟鄉村發展計畫的一部分。鄉村發展計畫則構成歐洲共同農業政策的第二支柱。地理標示規章保護受保護的原產地名稱與受保護的地理標示兩種名稱。地理標示規章的一大特徵是不僅規範名稱同時也規範該名稱所表彰的產品的各項生產條件。地理標示規章採註冊保護主義。通常情況下只有同一農產品或食品生產者或加工者的團體組織才有資格申請註冊。產品說明書是地理標示制度的核心元素，在申請階段，產品說明書所載資訊被用來決定該名稱是否應受保護。在註冊之後，產品說明書的規定成為想要使用該名稱的生產及加工者必須遵守的規範。產品說明書的內容更是界定法律保護範圍的基礎。地理標示賦予權利人兩種權利，亦即，使用權與排他權。只要不被撤銷註冊，權利可以永久存續。作為達成歐盟鄉村發展目標的政策工具，歐盟地理標示保護先天通用性名稱、鼓勵卡特爾並回饋獎勵地方集體傳統生產方式。這些特徵使地理標示成為一種為不公平競爭，反競爭與反創新提供誘因的智慧財產權。

As a form of intellectual property (IP), GIs have their origin in Europe and the EU regime has been regarded as the paradigm of GI law. Under the EU GI Regulation, protection is acquired through registration. As a collective right, only a group is entitled to apply for registration and a registered name may be used by any operator marketing agro-food products conforming to the criteria. A registered name gives its legitimate users the right to prevent the unauthorized use of the protected name even where there is no consumer confusion. The protection is of indefinite duration so long as the conditions for protection continue to be met. The GI Regulation for agro-food products was first introduced in the early 1990s partly because of the political need to protect local traditional food producers and partly because of its potential in benefiting rural economy while maintaining food quality which was regarded as fitting into the multifunctional features of the CAP reform. The EU explicitly employs geographical indications (GIs) as a policy tool for rural development. This policy goal is achieved by exploiting certain economic features of GIs, that is, they are designed to incentivize anti-competitive and anti-innovative practices. First, GIs provide their eligible users with monopolistic effects in the market for the underlying product by protecting innately generic names. Second, the collective nature of GIs encourage cartels and thus gives their users competitive advantages against outsiders. Last but not least, GIs shield traditional agro-food producers from innovative competitors by rewarding production methods complying with local and collective traditions.