Since the release of the Philippine Intellectual Property Office’s Rules
and Regulations on Geographical Indications in 2022, the world-famous Guimaras
Mango has officially become the Philippines’ first Geographical Indication due
to the combined efforts of the Guimaras Mango Growers and Producers Development
Cooperative and the European Union . This development, according to the IPO, is
also meant to benefit the agricultural and handicraft sectors in the
Philippines and promote traditional and indigenous Philippine products.
The GI Rules define a geographical indication as any indication which
identifies a good as originating in a territory, region or locality, where a
given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of the good is essentially
attributable to its geographical origin and/or human factors.
Under the GI Rules, Indigenous cultural communities or Indigenous
Peoples refer to a group of people or homogenous societies identified by
self-ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as
organized community on communally bounded and defined territory and who have,
under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed, and
utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs,
traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through
resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization,
non-indigenous religions and cultures, became historically differentiated from
the majority of Filipinos.
Enhanced protection afforded under the GI Rules may be acquired through
registration and a certificate issued by the IPO. Any person with a duly
registered GI shall have the right to prevent third parties from engaging in
any misleading acts, such as use of any means in the designation or
presentation of a good that indicates or suggests that the good in question
originates in a geographical area other than the true place of origin in a
manner which misleads the public as to the geographical origin of the good.
Applications for registration may be made by: (a) producers or producers’
organization or association representing stakeholders directly involved in the
extraction, production, or manufacture of the goods covered by the geographical
indication; (b) government agencies or local government units having area of
responsibility covering the geographical origin of the goods, as well as
representatives of foreign governments relative to the GIs of its nationals;
and (c) organizations or associations or indigenous cultural
communities/indigenous peoples which are specifically entrusted with the task
of regulating and/or protecting GIs.
Once a GI is determined to be entitled to registration and protection,
it is protected for an unlimited term unlike other intellectual property
rights, unless its registration is revoked or otherwise cancelled. The
registration of a GI shall be revoked if, among other grounds, there has been a
change in the geographical origin of the goods including the natural and human
factors which are determinative of the quality, reputation or characteristics of
the goods bearing a GI and such change results in disqualification, or if the
registered GI has been proven to be generic for, or a common or customary name
of the goods covered by the GI in the Philippines prior to the grant of
protection.
The GI Rules may be
accessed through this link.