Beyond Terroir: The Contextual Dimension of Geographical Indications – An Initial Inquiry

Abstract This article advances the claim that geographical indications may communicate not only information about the provenance and qualities of a good or service but also broader contextual associations linked to the national environment in which a product is made or a service is performed. To capture this dimension, the article proposes a distinction between three types of information conveyed by geographical indications: origin information, relating to the place from which a product or service originates; product information, encompassing the qualities attributable to local environmental and human factors commonly referred to as terroir; and context information, reflecting broader attributes of the country of origin, such as its legal and institutional framework, its infrastructure, and its education system. The article argues that context information merits legal protection in its own right. After mapping the principal legal strategies for the protection of geographical indications, it turns to the Swiss legal framework as a case study. On this basis, it identifies a number of structural features that may enable a legal framework governing geographical indications to safeguard the integrity of contextual associations.