Olivier MANDEL was invited by the EU Commission to participate as a speaker at its Seminar organized in Milano (Italy) on October 1 2015

In the framework of EXPO Milano, the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission (DG AGRI) organized a seminar titled « A common control culture for geographical indications: a multi-level and multidisciplinary approach, best practice, public and private enforcement and the help of science« .

The seminar took place on October 1, 2015 in the EU Pavillon at EXPO Milano.

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/expo-milano-2015/cap-events/index_en.htm

Olivier MANDEL was invited by DG AGRI to participate as a speaker in that event.

The title of the presentation of Olivier MANDEL was: « What role for the French Customs in the fight against infringement of geographical indications ?« 

Olivier MANDEL explained how the groups of producers defending geographical indications for food, wine and spirit drinks can work with the French Customs to fight efficiently against the infringement of their intellectual property rights.

You will find enclosed a copy of the presentation of Olivier MANDEL.

This Seminar was a great success: it gathered more than 80 people coming from all the 28 EU Member States. Participants were mainly representatives of the various control bodies in Member States responsible for production and market place controls with respect to designations of origin (PDO) and geographical indications (PGI).

DG AGRI is competent for the registration of PDO/PGI. PDO/PGI are intellectual property rights. Once registered, names, like « Cognac » or « Scotch Whisky », enjoy a high level of protection in the EU. The increasing values of products with PDO and PGI also increases the risk of fraud and infringements.

Protection of PDO and PGI for food, wine and spirit drinks lies at the cross-roads of the fight against food fraud and infringements of intellectual property rights.

The objectives of the Seminar organized by DG AGRI were to examine the potential for a multidisciplinary approach to stop infringements and to make the intellectual property enforcement with respect to PDO/PGI more powerful.

Presentation of Mr Olivier Mandel (Seminar of the EU Commission – Milano October 1 2015 – FINAL VERSION)