In connection with it, will come into consideration the eco-brands of qualified entities, public or private, that carry out controls on the production of the entities that are authorized to use those brands through typical co-branding operations (i.e the use of these brands in conjunction with the corporate trademark): the company that associates its corporate trademark with a collective or certification trademark (but also to an individual mark for multiple use, which is equally subject to the truth obligation and therefore, if it communicates a message referring to “environmental or social characteristics”, will have to provide a certification scheme) allows the consumer to immediately recognize in its products or services bearing also these trademarks the quality that they guarantee, without the need to change the general message attached to its corporate trademark. In such a way said co-branding allows these products of its to benefit from the added value derived from that particular quality, and first and foremost today from sustainable or socially virtuous production under the profiles covered by the certification, communicating them to the market precisely through affixing, alongside the corporate trademark, the collective or certification trademark (the latter two of particular importance precisely in the agri-food sector) or the individual mark for multiple use that guarantees such quality. These may include, moreover, the same trademarks of the Environmental Associations, conferring through them the association’s “approval” on products and enterprises that they judge to conform to certain environmental or social standards, always, however, on the basis of objective findings, the burden of implementing a certification scheme being mandatory here as well. In this way, once again, companies will be incentivized to adopt procedures and create products that are as environmentally friendly as possible, in order to avoid the negative publicity for their trademarks resulting from the judgment of said associations and for them (and their products) to be associated with a positive message. Furthermore territorial public entities – which in Italy are expressly entitled to apply for trademarks “having as their object distinctive graphic elements drawn from the cultural, historical, architectural or environmental heritage of the respective territory”, exploiting them in particular “through licensing and for merchandising activities”11 – will also be able to play an important role, particularly in the food and wine sector. The trademarks intended to certify the eco-sustainable 11 Art. 19 Industrial Property Code, recently made applicable to cultural institutions and places as well, by the aforementioned Made in Italy Law.. 115 WINE TOURISM AND SUSTAINABILITY: NEW “GREEN TRADEMARKS”
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