Criminal proceedings against Yvon Chiciak and Fromagerie Chiciak (C-129/97) and Jean-Pierre Fol (C-130/97).
Date: 1998-06-09
25 According to the seventh and twelth recitals in its preamble, the 1992 regulation is intended to ensure uniform protection within the Community of geographical names which comply with it. Furthermore, that uniform protection results from registration carried out in accordance with the rules specifically laid down by the regulation.
26 The 1992 regulation introduced the requirement for geographical names to be registered at Community level in order to enjoy protection in every Member State and defined the Community framework which was thenceforth to govern that protection, which is to be obtained only at the end of a compulsory notification, verification and registration procedure.
28 A Member State which has used the registration procedure laid down in Article 17 may, pursuant to Article 17(3), maintain national protection of the name in question until such time as a decision on registration has been taken.
32 In that respect, it must be held, while pointing out that the new provision inserted into Article 5 of the 1992 regulation by the 1997 regulation does not apply to the registration procedure laid down in Article 17, that before the 1997 regulation entered into force there was no basis in the 1992 regulation for a power such as that relied upon by the French Government. Contrary to that government's assertion, it is clear from the 1997 regulation itself that, under the system introduced by the 1992 regulation, where Member States have the power to adopt decisions, even of a provisional nature, which derogate from the provisions of the regulation, that power is derived from express rules.
37 Even if Article 13 of the 1992 regulation were to mean that, in the absence of specific circumstances pointing to the contrary, the protection afforded by that provision covers not only the compound designation as a whole, but also each of its constituent parts, provided they are not generic or common terms, that provision could not constitute a sufficient basis for interpreting the 1996 regulation as meaning that, in the absence of a footnote, each constituent part of the compound name is protected.
38 There is nothing in the 1996 regulation - adopted by the Commission according to the committee procedure laid down in Article 15 of the 1992 regulation - to suggest that the use of the system of footnotes had such a purpose. Furthermore, under the system of protection created by the 1992 regulation, questions concerning the protection to be accorded to the various constituent parts of a name and, in particular, the question whether a generic name or a constituent part protected against the practices referred to in Article 13 of the 1992 regulation may be concerned, are matters which fall for determination by the national court on the basis of a detailed analysis of the facts presented before it by the parties concerned.
39 The answer to the second question must therefore be that, as regards a `compound' designation of origin, the fact that there is no footnote in the annex to the 1996 regulation specifying that registration is not sought for one of the parts of that designation does not necessarily mean that each of its parts is protected.