ABSTRACT
This chapter presentsEuropean experience as well as developing country experience to the extent that the latter is able so far to provide any clear lessons. According to the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips), geographical indications (GIs) are 'indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region/locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin'. Indeed, those countries established in their modern form by European settlers tend to be the most sceptical about the worth of GIs and the most cynical about European motivations. In this context, one should not be too surprised that it was Australia and the United States, both major producers of old world agricultural commodities, foodstuffs and beverages, who made a formal complaint at the WTO against the European Community for its methods of protecting GIs.
