Luxembourg, 18/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The EU Court of Justice has declared the ban on the use of the “Tocai” denomination valid for certain Italian wine from 2007, valid. This will be enacted in order to protect the Hungarian geographical indication “Tokaj” in the EC/Hungary agreement of 1993. The Court points out that on this date, the denomination “Tocai Friulano” and Tocai Italico” were the names of a variety of vine recognised in Italy and not a geographical indication in the sense of the EC/Hungary agreement. The Court explains that in the event of a homonym arising between a protected geographical indication, at the time, of a third country and the denomination of a Community variety of vine, the provisions of the agreement on the rights of the industrial property concluded in the framework of the WTO would not allow for the name of the variety of vine to continue to be used. The ban will be applied for the benefit of the general interest, indicated the Court.
It judges this ban proportionate as the Italian wine producers have had 13 years to replace their denomination. The autonomous region of Frioul, as well as the Rural Regional Development Agency had called on the regional administrative court of Lazio to declare the Italian legislation null and void by implementing the ban included in the EC-Hungary agreement.