As Australian wine companies retreat from the use of European geographic regions in relation to their products, one Western Australian wine producer has managed to hold firm.
As Australian wine companies retreat from the use of European geographic regions in relation to their products, one Western Australian wine producer has managed to hold firm.
While European names such as Burgundy and Champagne have been gradually forced from local labels, WA’s Feet First has survived a challenge to its name resulting from similarities with the wine growing region of First, in Germany.
Following a treaty signed in 1992, wine makers have been required to phase out the use of more than 3,000 European geographical regions to represent wines that do not include grapes from that region.
The best known case involves the the French region of Champagne, with Australian wine makers re-branding to ‘sparkling wines’.
Other names now barred from use include Chablis, Cognac, claret, Marsala and Moselle.
Last week, WA Business News reported that WA winery Houghton Wines has re-branded its iconic White Burgundy as Houghton’s White Classic in order to comply with obligations under the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation Act.
Houghton has been producing its White Burgundy for nearly 70 years.
It’s not a ruling beyond challenge, however.
When WA company Fine Wine Wholesalers was questioned by the trade mark examiner over its ‘Feet First’ label, it decided to fight its case.
And it won, with the Trade Marks Office saying that ‘a commonsense approach’ should be adopted in situations where registered regions also have ordinary English meanings.
Fine Wine director Ross Lawrence said that, although First is a region in Germany, the company believed it was unfair that this fact placed the use of the word beyond reach.
“First has a meaning in the English language, and we thought it was going too far to stop the use of it,” Mr Lawrence said.
Minter Ellison’s head of intellectual property, David Stewart, who represented Fine Wine Wholesalers, said the case demonstrated that the interpretation of the regulations was far too broad.
“If someone is using geographic names to mislead consumers, that is one thing, but if it is a common word, it should be allowed to be used,” Mr Stewart said.
“Until this decision, winemakers were prohibited from using a geographical indication in a trade mark application, even in circumstances where the trade mark as a whole did not confuse and mislead the consumer with respect to the origin of the wine.”
Mr Stewart said there were between 10 and 30 wine-related trademarks lodged every week. The Feet First decision meant that winemakers who had registered or intended to register bona fide trade mark applications would not be forced to outlay large sums of money to re-brand their wines in order to ensure that they were not contravening the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation (AWBC) Act.
Wine is not the only product being affected by geographical indication protection, according to Mr Stewart, who said there was a recent push to protect foods in Europe.
In October, the European Court of Justice ruled that ‘feta’ is not a term that can be freely used to describe a type of cheese unless it originates from Greece. This means that Australian producers who export to Europe will no longer be able to call their cheese ‘feta’.
With Europe increasingly lobbying to protect geographical indicators, many Australian producers are likely to be affected and have to re-brand their products in order to conform with the European registration system.
