The magazine article puts forward how the program operates and brings a case study i.e. the salt of Cahuil (AO, 2013), and how successful Sello de Origen has been for their trade.
Actually, part of the Sello de Origen project is, in its first step, to identify the products, but then, there is a selection process (second step), where products are singled out if they are ‘worthy’ of IP protection. Then the question is: what is to be worthy? Any product which is the creation of a person or group of people not only is worthy of protection but must be protected. This is, if I am not mistaken, the bare notion of IP and its regulation i.e. is a set “of the intangible products of human creativity” (Abbott, Cottier & Gurry) and “Intellectual property law regulates the creation, use and exploitation of mental or creative labour” (Bently & Sherman).
While any product is worthy there is indeed the issue of GI which apart from using it as a tool for enhancing cultural value, it can sometimes have a negative effect since some of these products are created or extracted by farmers or small communities where the value given to the product is given by its uniqueness. If production is pushed and rushed due to demands, individuality will be lost -- as we are reminded in the case studies of Chulucana in Peru and Tequila in Mexico.
This last comment is not of detriment to the Sello de Origen program, on the contrary, it has been always supported by the blog. But it would be correct to see that projects and campaigns also put in ‘black and white’ the flaws and problems that SMEs may face.
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