Rights to Designaton Focusing on Protected Designations and Geographical Indications of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs

The paper deals with the issue covered by the field of industrial property, it deals with the right to designation, especially with characteristics of legal regulation of labeling of products with regard to their geographical origin at the Slovak, communitarian and international levels. Individual objects of the industrial property may be the result of intellectual creative activity of its creator/creators (e.g. inventions, utility models, designs) or they are not the result of creative activity of a particular natural person and are considered as industrial property rights to designation. The group of rights to designation includes: business names, trademarks, designation of origin for products and geographical indications for products. The rights to designation, inter alia, shall ensure uniqueness and competitive advantage for entrepreneurs and easy identification on the market of goods and services for the consumers. The paper closely analyzes the harmonized legal regulation of designations of origin and geographical indications of agricultural products, foodstuffs, spirit drinks, and wines. At the example of Tokaj wine region, it demonstrates the importance of protected designations at the EU level, in case of which demonstrable geographical origin of the product with controlled product specification by authorized national bodies brings a guarantee of quality of this product for consumers and the competitive advantage during their commercial implementation for the entrepreneurs.