Hunan Rolls out Measures on GI Protection Demonstration Zone Construction

The Hunan Administration for Market Regulation recently issued a set of trial implementation measures on the construction and management of the demonstration zones of Geological Indications (GIs) protection. It aimed to create experience of GIs protection that can be repeated and promoted, raise the profile and market influence of Hunan's GI protection products, and promote Hunan products to other provinces and the world.

The measures specified the ground, application requirements, implementation subjects, tasks, and management procedures of the demonstration zone construction. According to the document, the demonstration zones will take the GIs approved by the National Intellectual Property Administration as objects of construction, and the local governments will be responsible for the implementation of the measures, based on the principles of high-standard construction, high-level protection, and high-quality development.

A GI as a construction object should reach a designated size, and has a good foundation of utilization. There should be more than five enterprises approved to use this GI, and the total users should take up more than half of all producers in the zone. Meanwhile, the output value of these enterprises should reach 100 million CNY, and the figure should be more than half of that of related industries in the zone. Within the two-year construction period, the use coverage rate of special indications for geographical indications in the relevant production enterprises of the demonstration objects shall reach more than 80%, and the use coverage rate of geographical indications in the demonstration area shall reach more than 80%.

Hunan possesses abundant GIs, with 80 GI products, 229 GI trademarks, and 3 GI protection demonstration zones completed or under construction. A total of 110 counties, county-level cities, and districts in Hunan's 13 cities and one prefecture have GIs, among which 15 key counties receiving assistance in pursuing rural revitalization own 61 GIs. The production places of 12 GI products, including Shaping Xiang Embroidry and Yanling Yellow Peach, made the list of Hunan's first batch of GI protection demonstration zones.