Collective marks, certification or guarantee marks, designations of origin and geographical indications

Abstract

The study of collective trademarks is of little harmony in the doctrine of trademarks, an equally important fact in the area of legislation that concerns them in the different legal systems, especially in the countries most quoted in legal science. In this sense, César Bessa Monteiro wrote that the concept of collective trademark is one of the most complex and difficult to define in the scope of Industrial Property, adding that American collective marks are clearly distinguished from the warranty or certification marks, while in the United Kingdom only the certification mark is regulated and there is no process for the registration of collective marks. Inevitably, the study of collective marks calls for the certification or guarantee mark as well as the designations of origin and geographical indications, concepts that intercommunicate in theory and also in practice. The objective is to bring to the fore the contours of the understandings held at the level of doctrine and national and foreign legislation on the matter, without leaving aside the perspective of the author.