Yang Yonggang interviewed by central media: stimulating the vitality of geographical indication products and Promoting Rural Revitalization

International online news (reporter Han Donglin): brand is an important starting point to drive, integrate and promote the development of Rural Revitalization industry. It is the "golden key" to make green water and green mountains become "golden mountains and silver mountains".

At the 2021 China International Trade in services Fair, which ended not long ago, the 2021 world geographical indication brand exhibition and the world geographical indication product brand distribution service conference of origin came on stage. 27 domestic and foreign geographical indication enterprises selected hundreds of landmark products to appear. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the role and significance of geographical indication products in the process of rural revitalization, recently, the reporter talked with a number of geographical indication industry experts and enterprise representatives to interpret and analyze them from different perspectives.

It is an important intellectual property right to correctly identify geographical indications of "the best local products".

According to the relevant provisions of the TRIPS agreement of the world trade organization, the civil code of the people's Republic of China and the Trademark Law of the people's Republic of China, geographical indications are a kind of intellectual property and an identification mark juxtaposed with copyright, trademark and patent, That is, "a sign indicating that a commodity comes from a certain region, and the specific quality, reputation or other characteristics of the commodity are mainly determined by the natural or human factors of the region".

"In the popular language, the product of geographical indications is the essence of local products, and geographical indications are the signs of identifying the essence of local products." Yang Yonggang, President of Beijing geographical indication industry association, President of Beijing Nongzhi geographical indication Research Institute and President of geographical indication branch of China Trademark Association, summarized to reporters.

Yang Yonggang further introduced that enterprises can use "two brands" - the public brand carried by geographical indications, that is, the parent brand; The enterprise's own brand carried by the ordinary trademark is the sub brand. For example, in the slogan "Fuling pickled mustard or Wujiang is better", Fuling pickled mustard is a geographical indication, and "Wujiang" is an enterprise's own brand. The win-win market state of parent and child brands is the advanced stage of enterprise brand construction.

In the field of service trade, geographical indication is an important intellectual property right. Its legal role is to protect the name and mark of origin. Its market role is that geographical indication is the core legal carrier of regional public brand. "Without the existence of the legal system of geographical indications, anyone can call their products the essence of local products, and the market order will be chaotic." Yang Yonggang stressed.

"Gold lettered signboard" drives one party's industrial geographical indication, which is a strong starting point for Rural Revitalization

Li Chunming, vice president of Beijing geographical indication industry association, has been engaged in the registration of geographical indication certification trademarks and product operation for a long time. He believes that the significance of creating geographical indication products lies in developing local economy, driving local industries and creating characteristic boutiques. Geographical indications are a powerful starting point in Rural Revitalization. Giving full play to the "golden signboard" of geographical indications can drive one industry, especially in rural areas dominated by agricultural production.

Gangcha county is located in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. There are more than 5 million mu of National Organic Certified Natural Grassland on nearly 10000 square kilometers of land in the county. Cattle and sheep are everywhere on the grassland, which has unique geographical advantages. "Gangcha yak, Gangcha yak yogurt, Qinghai Lake Tibetan sheep and Gangcha fern hemp" have all obtained the national geographical indication certification. Zheng Xuechuan, general manager of Qinghai Yuanxin Trading Co., Ltd., said, "passing the certification of national geographical indications will help to improve the quality of agricultural products in Gangcha county and promote the economic development of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. It is very effective to help Gangcha agricultural products go out of the plateau and go to the whole country." The national geographical indication certification has won the strongest endorsement for the "yak Xiaoxia" brand Gangcha agricultural products sold by Qinghai Yuanxin Trading Co., Ltd., and also made the company's high-quality and brand strategy more stable and solid.

Taipusi Banner, Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia autonomous region mainly produces and sells flaxseed oil, quinoa, potato, sunflower, oats and other agricultural products. According to the relevant person in charge of the Taipusi Banner Commerce Bureau, the unique natural environment and profound history and culture have created the uniqueness of Taipusi Banner crops. Affected by the local terrain and climate, the nutritional value and quality of these characteristic crops are higher than ordinary flaxseed oil, sunflower and oats. At the same time, it is hoped that Puqi will increase the popularity of the above-mentioned agricultural products through the regional economic certification of Puqi, and increase the sales channels of Puqi agricultural products, so as to increase the economic popularity of the above-mentioned products.

There are great differences in climate, soil and water quality in each place, which leads to great differences in the nutritional value of agricultural products from the mouth and becomes the "natural" business card of local specialties. Gannan yunduan Lingcheng Food Technology Co., Ltd. has been deeply engaged in the sales of agricultural products under the brand of "Gannan yunduan Lingcheng" in recent years. The person in charge of the enterprise, GA Dan Mucao, told reporters: "although we have not conducted formal geographical indication certification, highland barley, as a crop mainly grown in plateau areas, is our most powerful product 'business card'."

Coordinated development of "mother and child brands" to enhance the market competitiveness of geographical indication products

According to statistics, by the end of June 2021, China had registered 6339 geographical indication trademarks, identified 2478 geographical indication protection products, registered 3454 geographical indications of agricultural products and approved 12789 enterprises using special signs. "In terms of quantity, compared with Europe, America, Japan and other countries and regions, we have reached a certain scale, but from the actual situation of our country, our geographical indications still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of quantity and quality." Yang Yonggang pointed out.

Geographical indication products are the most representative characteristic industries of a place. They are not only the business card of local economy and the booster of regional economic development, but also the strong support for consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization. However, the biggest bottleneck of geographical indication products in China is that the sales scope is too narrow, most products are mainly digested by the local market or purchased by local expatriates.

In Yang Yonggang's view, there is a long way to go to change this situation. First of all, we should adhere to the high-quality development route, take geographical indications as the legal carrier to create regional public brands, and continue to strengthen the publicity and promotion of brands, so as to improve the market competitiveness of geographical indication products. He also mentioned that the China EU agreement on geographical indications, which came into force on March 1 this year, will provide an important official channel for the geographical indication products of China and the EU to go to the other party's market, and also plug in the sails for the sailing of China's characteristic agricultural products.

Li Chunming also mentioned that the entry into force of the China EU agreement on geographical indications is of great significance to the development of China's geographical indication products, and China's geographical indication products can be more easily exported to European countries. For the enterprises of China and Europe, with the escort of the agreement, the trade of geographical indication products will be more convenient; For consumers, there will be more varieties and high-quality geographical indication products to choose from; For the majority of farmers and herdsmen, they can also make their "money bags" stronger by producing high-quality geographical indication products.

Geographical indication brand building is characterized by the coordinated use of regional public brands and enterprise private brands, that is, the coordinated development of "parent and child brands". In the future, with the further improvement of China's intellectual property protection level, geographical indication brands will also be further protected by law. It can be predicted that the construction and development of regional public brand enterprises and private brands covered by the geographical indication system will be greatly improved. It is believed that the geographical indication industry will also become the core force to promote rural revitalization and become one of the main and important sectors of China's new economy.