3 ms·

Champagne is not a trademark, it's a geographic distinction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_Geographical_Status http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_G

• Groxx 16y ago
  What was it before 1992? I'd imagine it was still controlled somehow. edit: Also, it says it covers: >These laws protect the names of wines, cheeses, hams, sausages, olives, beers, Balsamic vinegar and even regional breads, fruits, and vegetables. These are different from, say, a blacksmith's creations how, precisely? Or batteries? They're consumable too. Or a city-named drug, which would probably be able to claim more loose definitions than a patent could, blocking far more competition? It seems an arbitrary distinction to be made around certain kinds of foods, when you really can't define "food" in any hard-lined, legally-acceptable way, without endless bickering about what is and what isn't food. Which is kind of the point of the disapproval of protecting the words in the first place. edit again: and that only covers the EU. How does the rest of the world see / enforce it?