In the past, with respect to transnational wine trade agreements, many of On Reserve’s entries discuss the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”), the Agreement Between the European Community and the United States of American on Trade in Wine, and the Agreement Between the European Community and…
Category: Wine and Trademark Law
‘Grand Cru’ and the Use of Quality Terms in the United States
Recently, I read an interesting article discussing the use of the term ‘Grand Cru’ by a United States winemaker. (See Much Ado About a Wine Marketing Designation.) The story reflects the use of the term ‘Grand Cru’ by Sea Smoke Cellars of Santa Barbara, California. After receiving a review in…
Russian Wine Producers Will Stop Using the Term ‘Champagne’ on Wine Products
Some very exciting news reached On Reserve this morning, thanks to Sean Buckley of Texas Tech University School of Law. With the recent execution of the bilateral trade agreement between Australia and the EU on the first of September, this news comes to us with great understanding. This last week,…
Upcoming Trip to Porto, Portugal and the Legal Protections of Port Wine
An epic adventure awaits me this upcoming week as I travel to Porto, Portugal, courtesy of Center for Wine Origins of Washington, D.C., to learn about the legal protections Portugal is pursuing to protect its highly-esteemed wine called Port. Port wine, under the federal law of the United States, is…
Trademark Infringement Suit Filed in California Court Between “Mommyjuice” and “Mommy’s Time Out”
On Monday, a lawsuit was filed in a federal court in California claiming that the “Mommyjuice” of California-based winery Clos Lachance Wines violates the trademark of “Mommy’s Time Out,” a wine marketed by a New Jersey wine distributor. (See Wine for “Mommy” Sets off Trademark Fight.) Both “Mommyjuice” and “Mommy’s Time Out”…
Changyu Wine Ends 10-Year Dispute Over Entitlement to Cabernet Trademark
Recently, Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine ended a 10-year dispute with six wine companies over legal entitlement to the Cabernet trademark (解百纳 or phonetically, “Jie Bai Na”). The dispute over the trademark questioned whether Changyu could dominate the Cabernet trademark as its common ingredient used to produce wine and as a common…
Chicago-Kent College of Law: War on Terroir
The Chicago-Kent College of Law Intellectual Property Law Society recently presented a lecture on geographical indications pertinent to wine law titled, “Geographical Indications of Origin and Trademark Law as they Pertain to Artisanal Cheese and Wine.” The professors featured in the following lecture are Professors Sarah Harding and Christopher Buccafusco….
The TRIPS Agreement and the Wine Industry
When considering international relations with respect to the wine industry, most literature recites the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (commonly called the “TRIPS Agreement”). Generally speaking, the TRIPS Agreement creates standards of intellectual property (“IP”) regulation amongst other members of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”). This agreement…