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Comment by Dah00n | Hacker News Reader

>To some, the very idea of signing away their heritage still rankles, however. "The Old World supplied the immigrants. It seems to be very weird that you’re saying that people can’t take culture with them," said one dairy negotiator

This is no different than if Apple workers from China start selling iPhones in the US that is actually branded Apple iPhone, completely different from a "real" iPhone or exact copy, same thing. If anything the hundreds of years old "brands" should be more protected, not less so.

Calling something made in the US Champagne is the same as printing Made in Champagne, France on the bottle. If European businesses started making big bucks on products pretending to be Native American people would go berserk.

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> This is no different than if Apple workers from China start selling iPhones in the US that is actually branded Apple iPhone, completely different from a "real" iPhone or exact copy, same thing.

I think it's more like them selling fake Apple iphones in some third country. Prior to the trade agreement fight, presumably each country could already enforce its own preferred approach domestically.

And in the US, trademarks can't be protected once they become common use for a certain type of product. Most Americans probably don't even know Champagne is a place name and not a type of bubbly wine. Many common words like "escalator" were once a company brand (some American elevator company). They lost control of the name and now it is used worldwide.

Personally I don't have a problem with protecting the locality names, though, even if it means renaming some products. I think it is worthwhile.

As a customer, why should I care if I get an iPhone or an exact, functionally identical, copy?

I'm French, and these kind of things are very important to me. When I buy cheese for example, more than just eat cheese, I want to know that I'm helping some tradition continue, and giving money to specific regions where the product is traditionally made. That applies for French products, Italian products, American products, Japanese products, you name it.

What kinds of things do you buy from America? Out of curiosity.

Unfortunately not much. While we can easily access some of the spirits, american wine is really hard to find, and don't even get me started on the cheese. Which is why I hope these kinds of law would educate the public more and lead to more specialized stores. French people usually don't care much about "traditional americans products", which meansamericaine that for example even Cheddar is really hard to find, and we're far from the variety that I could get in America.

If you don’t care, why would you insist on it having a specific name?

This isn't a very strong argument.

The closest equivalent would be saying another Chinese brand says its designed in California but it is not Apple. Apple is a legal entity and California is a region.

Not quite, as the geographical indication not only only means that it was produced there, but also has other constraints on how it is produced, etc... So it is very much a brand, in the very same meaning, that it doesn't necessarily guarantee quality, but that the brand of the region is a means of ensuring some quality standards.

E.g. there are wines from certain regions, but they do not have the geographic indication, as they have not been produced according to the regional standards.

And going with food it is even more important so, as it is close to impossible to reproduce the climate and terroir somewhere half around the world.

That doesn't mean, that it is worse, just that it is not the same.

Take Lambrusco as an example, they do have (or had?) a bad reputation and suffer for it. It's a good motivation for regional producers to keep each others in check.

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