(1) The use of legal terms is not uniform

At present, the concepts related to geographical origin indications used by relevant countries and international organizations in laws and international conventions and international treaties mainly include: The Origin of Goods, Certificate of Origin, Indication of Source, Applications of Origin, Geographical Indications, etc. Origin and certificate of origin are mainly used in the trade field, while source mark, designation of origin and geographical indication are terms used in the legal field. [3] The place of origin refers to the place of production or manufacture of the goods. The certificate of origin is a document proving the origin of the goods. The place of origin and the certificate of origin do not indicate the quality, reputation or other characteristics of the goods, let alone the quality and The connection between places of origin is a mark indicating the country of origin of goods or a certain region of the country of origin. The source mark refers to a mark indicating the country of origin of the goods or a certain region of the country of origin. Appellation of origin refers to the geographical name of a country, region or place, used to indicate that a commodity originates from that place and its quality or characteristics depend entirely or mainly on the geographical environment, including natural and man-made factors. The term geographical indication was first used in the international negotiations of the WTO, and is generally referred to as source mark and designation of origin. According to the connotations of source mark, name of origin and geographical indication, the extension of geographical indication is greater than that of name of origin and smaller than that of source mark. Due to the huge influence of the WTO, the emergence of the concept of geographical indications will replace the concepts related to geographical origin indications that have been used by relevant international organizations in international conventions and international treaties. In terms of the use of legal terms, my country’s trademark legal system for protecting geographical indications adopts an approach consistent with the TRIPS Agreement, using the legal term geographical indications, and the product protection system for geographical origin products using geographical indications. This is the legal term for the special mark for products in the region of origin.

(2) The conditions that geographical indications should meet are not specified

Theoretically, geographical indications should meet the following three conditions.

First, a geographical indication is a distinctive mark composed of specific elements that indicates that a product originates from a certain region. Any combination of words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and colors that can indicate that a product originates from a certain region, as well as the combination of the above elements, can constitute a geographical indication. Although countries around the world have no restrictions on geographical names in geographical indications, it can be the existing name of a place, place, region or country, or it can be the historical name of a place, place, region or country, but it must actually exist Geographic names cannot be arbitrarily made up and never existed. [4] Under normal circumstances, most geographical indications are composed of three parts: geographical name, product name and graphic, such as "Zhangqiu Green Onion", "Xinyang Maojian", etc.

Second, goods using geographical indications must have specific quality, reputation or other characteristics. It should be noted that although a geographical indication has the function of indicating the specific quality of goods, whether the quality of the goods is good or bad and whether it meets the relevant standards has no necessary relationship with the protection of the geographical indication, because a question involving whether the quality of the goods is up to standard , one involves the protection of geographical indications, which are two issues in different categories. [5]

Thirdly, the quality, reputation or other characteristics of goods using geographical indications are mainly determined by the natural or human factors of the area marked by the geographical indication. Natural factors include water quality, soil, climate, etc., while human factors include local traditional technology, special craftsmanship, and manufacturing methods.

Although my country’s Trademark Law, Trademark Law Implementation Regulations, Collective Trademarks and Certification Marks Registration and Management Measures, and relevant judicial interpretations of the Supreme People’s Court do not stipulate the conditions that geographical indications should meet, However, we can deduce three conditions that geographical indications should meet based on the provisions of the Trademark Law on the constituent elements of trademarks and the definition of geographical indications. The "Regulations on the Protection of Products from Regions of Origin" do not stipulate the conditions that geographical indications should meet. According to the definition of products from regions of origin in the "Regulations", we can only deduce the last two conditions that geographical indications should meet.

(3) The prior right system is imperfect

Article 9, paragraph 1, Article 31 and Article 41, paragraph 2, of my country’s Trademark Law Principle provisions have been made. The above provisions are of great significance in preventing conflicts between collective trademark rights for geographical indications or certification trademark rights for geographical indications and special indication rights for products of origin. Since my country's Trademark Law, the Implementation Regulations of the Trademark Law and the relevant judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court do not stipulate the scope of prior rights, the theoretical and practical circles have different opinions on whether geographical indication rights belong to the category of prior rights. There are different understandings on whether geographical indication rights can prevent the geographical indication from being registered as a collective trademark or certification mark, and there are different understandings on whether a registered geographical indication collective trademark or certification mark that damages the geographical indication rights can be revoked.

Since the "Regulations on the Protection of Products from Regions of Origin" does not provide for the prior rights system, theoreticians and practitioners have questioned whether collective trademark rights for geographical indications or certification trademark rights for geographical indications can prevent the protection of products from regions of origin. There are different understandings on how to deal with the conflict between the exclusive mark rights for products of origin and collective trademark rights for geographical indications or certification trademark rights for geographical indications. There are different understandings on whether an approved collective trademark that damages geographical indications can be revoked. There are different understandings of the protection of origin products of trademark rights or geographical indication certification rights.

(4) The restriction system of geographical indication rights is imperfect

In order to balance the interests between geographical indication rights holders and relevant parties, appropriate restrictions on geographical indication rights need to be imposed. The "Regulations on the Protection of Products from Regions of Origin

" does not stipulate the restrictions on geographical indication rights. Although the "Trademark Law" and the "Trademark Law Implementation Regulations" have three provisions on the restrictions on geographical indication rights, [ 6] However, there are no restrictions on foreign-related geographical indication rights.

(5) The application entities and review and approval procedures for product protection of origin areas are imperfect in socialist market economies