Geographical indications as global knowledge commons: Ostrom's law on common intellectual property and collective action

Armelle Mazé ()
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Armelle Mazé: SADAPT - Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: Abstract In this article, we reconceptualize, using an extended discrete and dynamic Ostrom's classification, the specific intellectual property (IP) regimes that support geographical indications (GIs) as ‘knowledge commons', e.g. a set of shared collective knowledge resources constituting a complex ecosystem created and shared by a group of people that has remained subject to social dilemma. Geographical names are usually considered part of the public domain. However, under certain circumstances, geographical names have also been appropriated through trademark registration. Our analysis suggests that IP laws that support GIs first emerged in Europe and spread worldwide as a response to the threat of undue usurpation or private confiscation through trademark registration. We thus emphasize the nature of the tradeoffs faced when shifting GIs from the public domain to shared common property regimes, as defined by the EU legislation pertaining to GIs. In the context of trade globalization, we also compare the pros and cons of regulating GIs ex-ante rather than engaging in ex-post trademark litigation in the courts.

Keywords: Place names; Collective reputation; GKC framework; IAD/SES framework; international trade agreement; self-governance; trademark; traditional knowledge JEL Classification: D02; D23; K11; L51; O34; Q13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env, nep-ipr and nep-law
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04063797v1
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Published in Journal of Institutional Economics, 2023, pp.1-17. ⟨10.1017/S1744137423000036⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04063797

DOI: 10.1017/S1744137423000036

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