First TSG application in Peru: PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (aniseed bread of Concepción)

More than four years after the publication of Legislative Decree No. 1397, which incorporated the “Traditional Specialty Guaranteed” (TSG) into our legislative system as an element of industrial property, the first application for registration of said legal category has been filed.

Thus, on March 21, 2023, the Regional Office of INDECOPI (ORI) in Junín received the first application for registration of Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG), filed for the traditional food preparation PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN). Said application, which is being processed under File No. 12677-2023, was filed by the Association Network of Artisan Bread Producers of Concepción, as well as by interested persons, namely, the promoter of said association, in addition to artisan bakeries and chefs of the department of Junín.

In the aforementioned application, PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN) is described as bread made using regional wheat flour, industrial flour, water, chicha de jora lees, yeast, sugar, salt and aniseed, which has round shape with neutral to brown tones, it is presented in two covers (one bread over the other), with neutral flavor between sweet and salty, with aniseed aroma, and with a crunchy texture on the outside and soft on the inside.

PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN) has been made, since colonial times, in a traditional and artisanal way, exclusively in the province of Concepción, department of Junín, Perú. In the “Set of Conditions” filed in support of the application for registration of the TSG, the factors that distinguish PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN) from other regional breads are detailed. Said factors are (i) the ingredients (the use of stone-ground regional flour, the use of aniseed and the use of spring water), and (ii) the preparation process (the use of the hands to make the dough, pleating and shaping, as well as the use of handmade utensils and oven).

The application for registration of PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN) as a TSG was published in the Electronic Gazette of Industrial Property on March 29, 2023.  The period for oppositions against applications for registration of a TSG is of 10 working days, which in the case of the application for registration of PAN DE ANÍS DE CONCEPCIÓN (ANISEED BREAD OF CONCEPCIÓN) expired on April 14, 2023.

If no oppositions have been filed, the Head Office of Distinctive Signs of INDECOPI will proceed to the substantive examination of the application to determine if the denomination applied for registration as a TSG meets the conditions for its protection. In accordance with the provisions of Supreme Decree No. 170-2021-PCM, which approves the Regulations of the Regime for the Protection of Traditional Specialties Guaranteed and the Regime of Geographical Indications, the grounds for denying the registration of a TSG are the following (Article 13 of said Legislative Decree):

a)      Do not comply with the definition contained in numeral 2.5 of Article 2 of the Regulations (i.e.: “Name that identifies a food preparation intended to human consumption that has specific characteristics that clearly distinguish it from other food preparations belonging to the same category, due to the fact that they have been made from traditional raw materials or ingredients or that it is the result of a traditional composition, preparation, production or transformation”);

b)      Are contrary to public order;

c)      Are susceptible of affecting a previously protected or registered intellectual property right; 

d)      Are or affect collective knowledge of the indigenous peoples linked to biological resources, protected under Law No. 27811, which establishes the regime of protection of the collective knowledge of the indigenous peoples linked to biological resources.

Once a Traditional Specialty Guaranteed has been registered, said registration will have indefinite duration as long as the conditions that motivated it subsist.  If the conditions that determined the registration are not maintained, the Head Office of Distinctive Signs may declare the termination of its validity.

As Peru is a country of vast gastronomic wealth, we hope that this is the first of many applications for registration of Traditional Specialties Guaranteed in our country.