Appellations Of Origin As Region Branding Tool

Abstract

The article analyzes appellations of origin as region branding tools. In Russia, appellations of origin are intellectual property objects which allow individualizing goods with specific characteristics due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural and human factors, Khokhloma painting. In the legislation of the Russian Federation, unlike European countries, such an object of intellectual property as a geographical indication is not envisaged, which affects the number of protected designations. Weakness of the exclusive right belonging to right holders is noted. There are protected designations: art objects, articles of clothing, craftwork items, knitted and embroidered items, etc. Depending on the impact of any factors forming special properties of goods, there are 3 groups. In the first group, special properties are given to natural factors, in the second group – human. The third group is characterized by a combination of human and natural factors. Despite that, appellation of origin always guarantees the presence of special properties in the product, since it is the presence of special properties, a certain degree of fame. In the existing European system of individualization of goods, the protected name of the place of origin corresponds to the Russian appellation of origin, while the protected geographical indication is not provided in the Russian legislation. In order to unify the legislation, it is proposed to introduce a new means of individualization of geographical indication into the Civil code of the Russian Federation.