Patagonia as a Geographical Indication: What's Changed?

On February 1, 2022, the Argentine Institute of Viticulture (INV, after its initials in Spanish) issued Resolution No. 1/2022, which specified the scope and validity of the Geographical Indication (GI) Patagonia.

The resolution was issued in response to the petition filed by the Cámara Bodegas Exportadoras de la Patagonia Argentina Asociación Civil, whose aim, among others, is protecting the GI Patagonia.

The petitioner considered previous Resolution No. C 37 of December 24, 2002, issued by the INV, which resolved a conflict between said GI and the trademark PATAGONIA. The resolution had declared that the expression Patagonia Argentina was a synonym of Patagonia; thus, while the registration of the trademark was in force, only the use of Patagonia Argentina would be authorized.

Later, on September 9, 2014, the trademark registration PATAGONIA was declared null and void based on the prohibition of Section 3, subsection d) of the Argentine Trademark Law, which bars the registration of misleading trademarks (No. FGR 11000577/1999 “Establecimiento Humberto Canale SA vs Munetta, Patricio”). 

Bearing in mind that the trademark registration was no longer an obstacle, the new resolution established:

1. That the Geographical Indication (GI) Patagonia has been recognized within the scope of Article 4 of Law 25163, which provides the legal framework for the designation and presentation of wines and spirits of vinic origin in Argentina. The article defines a GI as the name that identifies a product originating from a region, a locality, or a delimited production area of the national territory no larger than the surface of a province or an already recognized interprovincial zone, and states that the GI will only be justified when a particular quality and certain characteristics of the product are fundamentally attributable to its geographical origin.
2. That the GI Patagonia has been protected since December 16, 2022, by Resolution No. C 37 of the INV.
3. That the GI under consideration can be identified as either GI Patagonia or as GI Patagonia Argentina.