Intangiblia™
Plain talk about Intellectual Property. Podcast of Intangible Law™
Intangiblia™
Pairs Well With Fame, Fraud, and a Hint of Lawsuit
A bottle of wine carries more than fermented grapes. It embodies intellectual property worth billions in global markets. From the tapas bars of Barcelona to the vineyards of Australia, wine names spark international incidents with real-world consequences.
When a small Spanish bar named "Champanillo" (little champagne) faced the wrath of the powerful Comité Champagne, it revealed how geographical indications function like luxury brand protections. No actual champagne was sold, yet the European Court of Justice ruled the mere evocation of champagne's prestige violated EU law. Similarly, Belgian customs officials destroyed thousands of Miller High Life beer cans for daring to call themselves "The Champagne of Beers" despite using the slogan for over 120 years.
These battles extend beyond Europe's borders. Croatian winemakers watched helplessly as their traditional Prošek dessert wine, despite being nothing like sparkling Prosecco, was blocked from registration after Italian opposition. Meanwhile, Australia and the EU reached a trade negotiation impasse over whether "Prosecco" refers to a grape variety (as Australians argue) or a protected place name (as Europeans insist). The dispute demonstrates how a single wine term can become geopolitical leverage worth potentially billions in trade.
Luxury producers fight equally fierce battles, with Château Petrus winning a €1.2 million judgment against a cheaper wine called "Petrus Lambertini," while even Prince's estate successfully challenged an Ohio winery's "Purple Rain" wine. Counterfeiters face serious consequences too, fake Lafite bottles distributed through nearly 2,000 supermarkets resulted in an $11 million judgment, while Europol's "Operation Epigraphy" dismantled a multinational fake Rioja network spanning three countries.
Whether through trademarks, geographical indications, certification marks, or patents (as seen in the competitive synthetic cork industry), wine intellectual property serves as the legal foundation for an industry that blends agriculture, culture, commerce and law. What's inside the bottle is only half the story, the rest lies in who has the right to tell it.
Listen now to understand why every sip comes with a side of intellectual property law, and why the words on a wine label can be worth millions in courtrooms worldwide.
A bottle of wine is never just a bottle of wine. It's a story aged, named and dressed for admiration. But stories like these come with stakes, a name whispered too closely, a label that winks too hard, a grape that crosses borders without permission, because here terroir is intellectual property, fame is currency, and that pretty label might just be grounds for a lawsuit. And that pretty label might just be grounds for a lawsuit.
Speaker 2:You are listening to Intangiblia, the podcast of intangible law playing. Talk about intellectual property, Please welcome your host, Leticia Caminero.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to Intangiblia, the podcast where ideas ferment, trademarks, travel and creativity is always on the label.
Speaker 1:I'm Leticia Caminero, your host and I'm Artemisa, your AI co-host, optimized for flavor and fully decanted with facts Before we pour into this episode.
Speaker 3:Here's a quick disclaimer this episode was created with the support of AI tools yes, including the spirited voices you're hearing Unfiltered, unsulfured and unapologetically algorithmic. Our first stop is Barcelona, where a tiny tapas bar chain named Champanillo which means little champagne became the cork that popped a legal explosion. Despite only serving sparkling cava and beer, the bar's name and logo caught the attention of the Comité Champagne.
Speaker 1:Due to the lawsuit in 2021, the European Court of Justice ruled that, even if no champagne was being sold, the bar's name evoked the prestige of champagne, and that's enough to breach EU geographical indication GI protections.
Speaker 3:The court found that the association and consumers' minds was enough, so Champagnol had to go proving that champagne's GI isn't just for bottles, it's protected like a luxury brand.
Speaker 1:Gi isn't just for bottles. It's protected like a luxury brand. And hold my beer literally. In 2023, 2,352 cans of Miller High Life, self-branded the champagne of beers were seized and destroyed by Belgian customs. Why? Same reason the Comité Champagne flexed its GI rights.
Speaker 3:Same reason the Comité Champagne flexed its GI rights and the message Even iconic, 120-year-old slogans can't float past European borders if they infringe on protected regional terms. Next, a tale of bubbles, bureaucracy and branding boundaries. In 2021, croatia tried to register Prozac, a sweet Dalmatian dessert wine steeped in centuries of tradition. But Italy Not sweet about it.
Speaker 1:They were fuming. Italy argued Prozac sounded far too close to Prosecco. Their prize, sparkling geographical indication, didn't matter that Prozac is a still wine with a totally different flavor. The names Too bubbly for comfort.
Speaker 3:The European Commission agreed. In a controversial decision, they blocked Croatia's application. Why? Because even the possibility of confusion was enough to put centuries of heritage on hold.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't just about tradition, it was about money. Prosecco rakes in over $1,200,000,000 USD in exports each year. That's not just wine, that's leverage.
Speaker 3:And while Italy defended its feats in Brussels, another Prosecco fight was bubbling down under. Australian winemakers had been growing Prosecco grapes since the late 1990s, long before the EU declared it a protective name in 2009.
Speaker 1:To Aussies Prosecco was a grape To the EU. It became sacred ground and in 2023, it hit a boiling point. The EU All-In Free Trade Agreement stalled Over one word Prosecco.
Speaker 3:The EU demanded Australia drop the name. Australia said no, calling it a commercial ambush wrapped in a cork and ribbon.
Speaker 1:And the impact went global. In Singapore, Italy's Prosecco Consortium won a legal victory banning Aussie Prosecco from the market on the grounds that Prosecco is a place, not a plant.
Speaker 3:At the heart of it all, a deceptively simple but powerful IP question. Is a wine name about what it's made from or where it's?
Speaker 1:made is a wine name, about what it's made from or where it's made. The EU says place, Australia says plant, and consumers Divided. Some want origin stories, others just want a chilled glass with no drama.
Speaker 3:Still there may be hope for the trade deal, yet After all, even the most stubborn vintages can mellow with time and compromise might still be on the table. Next, let's visit Bordeaux's most famous address, chateau Petrus. In 2023, they took a French negociant to court over a cheaper wine called Petrus Lambertini.
Speaker 1:Not subtle. Even the label design nodded at the real Petrus one, one of the world's priciest wines, with bottles selling for 3,000 to 6,000 USD.
Speaker 3:The court found this branding to be parasitic, an attempt to trade on Petrus prestige without permission. They ordered a name change and fined the producer 1,200,000 euro zero cents zero cents around $1,300,000 zero cents USD.
Speaker 1:Luxury wine meets legal precision. That's a sommelier's cease and desist, and now Ohio.
Speaker 3:A local winery launched a wine called Purple Rain, a sweet concord red. But Princess Estate took one look and said not so fast.
Speaker 1:They moved to cancel the trademark, arguing it infringed on the pop icon's legacy. The winery's defense Prince didn't drink. Creative, but not convincing.
Speaker 3:They settled privately. But the case reminds us, a trademark isn't just about industry. If your brand echoes a cultural icon, expect to get called on it. Now to China, where Chateau Lafitte Rothschild won a massive case in 2023. A counterfeit ring had distributed thousands of fake Lafitte bottles through 1,963 supermarkets.
Speaker 1:The labels, corks and certificates were all forged. The cork awarded Lafitte about $11 million USD. That's one of the biggest IP awards in wine history.
Speaker 3:Meanwhile, in 2025, a tourist in Vietnam noticed a suspicious bottle of Rioja and sparked Operation. Epigraphy led by Europol.
Speaker 1:What followed was a multinational raid across Spain, China and Vietnam. Authorities seized 17 fake Rioja brands and dismantled a sophisticated counterfeiting operation.
Speaker 3:These cases show that wine fraud is serious, and geographical indications aren't just passive, they're enforced by real laws, real courts and sometimes international sting operations.
Speaker 2:You are listening to Intangiblia, the podcast of intangible law playing talk about intellectual property.
Speaker 3:In 2020, oregon took aim at Copper Cane Wines, run by Joe Wagner. His wine brand, eluan, used Oregon grapes, but the wine was bottled in Napa, california Music.
Speaker 1:And yet the label read purely Oregon. Always coastal sounds romantic, but it violated Oregon wine laws which require wines named after Oregon AVA's to be bottled in state.
Speaker 3:Copper Cane eventually agreed to relabel, but consumers launched a class action lawsuit arguing the branding was deceptive and hurt Oregon's wine image. Was deceptive and hurt Oregon's wine image. So here's the big idea when a label claims a place that place better match every step of production, not just the vineyard. Let's close with a case that didn't involve labels, but corks. Synthetic corks, to be exact, think plastic looking stoppers engineered for oxygen control.
Speaker 1:Two companies dominated this field Nomad Corks and Amcork. Nomad Cork pioneered multi-layer corks with adjustable oxygen transmission rates. Amcork built on sustainable materials and extrusion technology.
Speaker 3:They filed dozens of patents oxygen permeability, biobased foams from sugarcane and extr extrusion molds, all patented and fiercely defended.
Speaker 1:But instead of public brawls it was mostly strategic fencing, licensing deals, epo oppositions and tech exclusivity.
Speaker 3:These silent battles reshaped the market. Today, synthetic corks are widely accepted, especially for affordable and mid-range wines. And they've improved sustainability too, in this case, patents aged well, so after all this talk of names, fakes, bids and billion dollar branding battles, you might be wondering what exactly are we protecting here? Let's swirl the glass one more time and take a good look at the legal terms floating around.
Speaker 1:Because not all labels are created equal. Some are personal, some are collective, some are so territorial, they spark trade wars.
Speaker 3:Let's start with the classic the trademark. That's your brand name, your logo, your visual signature in the wine aisle. It could be something edgy like Purple Rain, nostalgic like Petrus Lambertini. A trademark is how a wine introduces itself and carves out its identity.
Speaker 1:And it's also the legal sword you pull when someone gets too inspired by your branding. But remember trademarks protect identity, not necessarily origin.
Speaker 3:That's where geographical indications, or GEIs, step in. These protect names that are linked to specific places and whose quality, reputation or characteristics are tied to that origin.
Speaker 1:Think Champagne, think Rioja. These aren't just regions, they're reputations. When you drink a wine with a GI, you're drinking its story the soil, the technique, the culture.
Speaker 3:Now, depending on the country, gis are enforced using different legal tools. In the US, they don't have a standalone GI law like the EU, so how is champagne protected there?
Speaker 1:It's filed as a certification mark, a type of trademark that says, yes, this product meets certain standards, like coming from a particular region or being made in a traditional way.
Speaker 3:The Comité Champagne owns that US certification mark. But there's a wrinkle Some American wineries that used champagne before 2006 were grandfathered in under older trade rules. So, yes, you might see a California champagne at the grocery store legally. It's a quirk of international negotiation, not terroir.
Speaker 1:And then we have the collective mark, which works like a team badge. It's owned by a group and its members can use it if they follow the rules.
Speaker 3:A perfect example the Rioja, the Consejo Regulador, owns the collective mark and certified Rioja producers use it together like a wine guild with high standards.
Speaker 1:And, above all, that there's the ultra premium category, the appellation of origin. It's like a GI, but with stricter rules. Everything from growing the grapes to bottling must happen in the defined region.
Speaker 3:Chianti Classico is a great example. And, yes, champagne qualifies under these two within the EU system.
Speaker 1:So whether it's a trademark protecting a clever name or a collective defending a centuries old region, Wine law isn't just about what you drink.
Speaker 3:It's about who, where and how, and making sure no one else pretends to be that.
Speaker 1:Because in wine words mean legacy and legacy is intellectual property.
Speaker 3:Just like a grape bottle, these legal protections age well and travel far. They speak for the land, the people, the craft and sometimes, yes, the courtroom.
Speaker 1:So what did we learn in today's glass of global intellectual property?
Speaker 3:Here are five lessons straight up. One place matters. Whether it's Champaign, rioja or Oregon, names on wine labels are more than just geography. They're legally protected identities. Two sound allies steer lawsuits, from Petrus Lambertini to Purple Rain. Clever naming can get costly fast. Three fraud is global and serious. Lafitte and Rioja cases show wine forgery isn't just illegal, it's organized and high stakes. Four packaging innovation is IP2. Synthetic cork patents prove that closures aren't an afterthought, they're engineered tools. Five wine law blends culture and commerce. Every legal decision ripples through global trade, branding and consumer trust. And that's a wrap on this episode. If you enjoyed this deep pour into wine and intellectual property, share the episode, leave a review and tell us what label or case you'd like us to uncork next.
Speaker 1:Because, whether it's a lawsuit or a Rioja, what's inside the bottles? Only half the story. I'm Leticia Caminero and I'm Artemisa, digitally fermented, rightfully aged.
Speaker 3:Until next time, protect your poor.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to Intangiblia, the podcast of intangible law plain talk about intellectual property. Did you like what we talked today? Please share with your network. Do you want to learn more about intellectual property? Subscribe now on your favorite podcast player. Follow us on Instagram, facebook, linkedin and Twitter. Visit our website wwwintangibliacom. Copyright Leticia Caminero 2020. All rights reserved. This podcast is provided for information purposes only.