Protection
One of the statutory objectives of the Consorzio is the activity of worldwide recognition and protection of the Chianti Classico designation of origin.
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The reasons
for protection
The reputation and prestige of the Chianti Classico designation has such an attractive force that every year there are several hundred cases of abuse, counterfeiting and ‘distorted’ use. Unlike easily identifiable brands, the Chianti Classico designation is a shared heritage for all Gallo Nero wine producers: its protection is a necessity and provides firm assurance to consumers.
The Consorzio Chianti Classico systematically carries out legal action against any situation that may damage the reputation and identity of the Chianti Classico designation.
Trademark
registration
Since the 1960s, the Consorzio del Chianti Classico has felt the compelling need to protect the Gallo Nero designation and the related brand, by providing a more specific and effective protection than that afforded by the national legislation on Designations of Origin.
Starting in 2003, the Consorzio began addressing the issue more intensively, actively fighting against trademark and designation counterfeiting.
With the support of the Mipaaf (Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies), the process of trademark registration and filing of the “Chianti Classico” designation – as collective trademark in descriptive terms under class 33 (wines) – is ongoing, in the interest of ensuring certainty to all the producers involved in the production of this renowned Italian wine, as well as of protecting the consumers from misleading practices. Recognition for the Chianti Classico collective trademark has currently been obtained in 29 countries worldwide.
Similarly, the process for both the Italian and the international registration of the Gallo Nero trademark was carried out several decades ago.
In compliance with current legislation, the ‘Gallo Nero’ trademark can now be used by the entire designation; or rather, it has become a symbol that immediately associates the Chianti territory to the very same Chianti Classico designation.
At present, the Gallo Nero collective figurative mark has been registered in 14 countries on top of the entire European Community, under class 33 (wines) as well as under different classes besides 33, and also in graphical forms that constitute ‘versions’ of the same trademark.
Monitoring
Activity
In order to implement and carry out such a large-scale trademark registration activity, a monitoring program is constantly in effect to control possible third-party registrations and use of similar trademarks for products under class 33 relating to far-reaching foreign markets.
It is evident that, although trademarks are filed and registered in various countries, in order to ensure their effective protection it is often necessary to verify the presence of any new registration, as well as the genuine use of similar trademarks within the territory.
The second type of control pertains to the use of confusingly similar trademarks. This inspection activity requires substantial human and economic resources, as it verifies the unauthorized use by third parties of trademarks identical or similar to those duly registered by the Consorzio and where appropriate, having assessed the extent of the problem, takes any legal action required to put an end to it.
To date, the cases under investigation in these two areas and closely monitored by the Consorzio are no less than 25.
The Chianti Classico
Gallo Nero Name Online
Another monitoring activity carried out over the past 10 years by the Consorzio has been focused on detecting the existence of Internet domain names that are somewhat evocative of the Chianti Classico designation, hence are likely to be confused with the domains owned by the very same Consorzio.
The Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico was actively involved in a program launching a series of new so-called gTLDs (Generic Top-Level Domain Names), which ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, adopted in 2015.
Brand
Intelligence
In an attempt to fully protect the designation, we have recently felt it necessary to introduce an innovative activity that we believe has been thus far all too often overlooked, all the more so because of the inherent technical difficulties.
Specifically, this activity closely watches the leading internet E-commerce platforms (E-bay, Amazon, etc.), and private online shops, not only to detect any unauthorized use of domain names identical or confusingly similar to our designation and to our brands, but rather to verify compliance with rules regulating online sales and advertising by dedicated online shopping portals.