There are a series of medical tests known as
a GI’s (short for gastrointestinal). Divided
into upper and lower GI’s, the tests determine
the relative health of one’s digestive system.
The patient must intake barium so that the soft
tissues will show better for the X-rays. For an
upper GI, the barium is taken orally, while for
a lower GI, the barium is… well, doctors don’t
like waiting for the barium to work its way down
to the lower realms. So, they inject the stuff from
a closer location. All in all, not a pleasant experience.
Cancun, Mexico is the site of a world trade meeting
this month. One of the hot topics to be debated
concerns GI’s. In the world trade sense, GI’s
refer to geographical indicators, which are special
kinds of trademarks, usually applied to food. And
just like the barium kind of GI, the experience
is not a pleasant one for American food companies.
A GI is a place name used on a product. For example,
Cognac denotes a region in France where brandy is
produced. Others have tried to put Cognac on alcoholic
beverages from other regions, but they have been
unsuccessful, in part due to the spirited defense
of the name by the French Ministry of Agriculture.
A Canadian company tried to register “The
Cognac of Fine Beer” here in the U.S., but
was unable to prevail.
There a number of other GI’s that have not
fared as well as Cognac. Names such as Burgundy,
Champagne, Chianti and Sherry used to be applied
to wines from those regions in Europe, but are now
widely applied to wines of any geographical origin.
The reason is simple: enterprising immigrants brought
grape vines and know-how from the old world to the
new. To the then-nascent American wine-making industry,
emulating the finer European wines made sense. Naming
their wines after regions in Europe made dollars
and cents, because it captured some of the consumer
recognition associated with those old world regions.
Hence, in America, Burgundy applies to both French
and domestic wines.
The general principle is that if a trademark stops
acting like a trademark and begins to act like a
name for a product, then everybody can use it. A
classic example is Danish pastry. At one time, the
pastry used to originate in The Netherlands. Because
the term Danish now describes the pastry itself,
everybody can use it, even non-Danes. In trademark
law, this is known as becoming generic. If you have
a trademark that others are using, you may lose
it unless you enforce it.
In some cases, a trademark can actually be stolen.
Consider the strange case of Budweiser beer. Anheuser-Busch
spends a lot of money every year advertising its
signature brand name. At times, their commercials
are more entertaining than the particular sporting
event supported by the ads. Everyone here in this
country knows what Budweiser stands for. But, it
wasn’t always so. Budweis is the name of a
town in Bohemia. The brewers of Budweis developed
a brewing process that was so special, beer brewed
according to that process became known as Budweiser.
In this country though, Anheuser-Busch was the only
company using the name and so acquired trademark,
or exclusive, rights to the name. American consumers
were unaware of the European meaning of Budweiser.
Actions like this haven’t made the Europeans
too happy. Granted, the Budweiser usurpation happened
a long time ago, but the continent of The Hundred
Years War has a long memory.
Which brings us to Cancun. The European Union (EU)
wants to stop the use of GI’s that aren’t
really from those areas. Feta cheese originally
came from Greece; now it’s available from
American sources. European purists must spasm with
anger every time they see a can of Kraft grated
Parmesan cheese with the shaker top.
The problem with the EU’s proposal is that
it applies to names that are now generic in this
country. That kind of thinking flies in the face
of American law, for once everyone has the right
to use a name, someone cannot pull it back out of
the public’s grasp.
In spite of this seemingly rock-like principle,
American food companies are still worried. Why?
Because those crafty Europeans only threw this GI
issue in relatively recently. The world trade negotiations
have been going on for over a decade, a mere snippet
of time to the old world. The real issue isn’t
what name food can be sold under; it’s whether
we can sell food in Europe without trade restraints
like quotas, tariffs and onerous inspections. The
small European farmers are afraid of competing with
the large, efficient American agribusiness farms.
In other words, the GI thing is trade bait. The
EU might open up its food market, but it’s
going to cost us.
For American food companies, it’s the kind
of thing that makes taking barium seem enjoyable. Originally Published in the Fort Worth Businss Press |
