Taking grapes at the end of the year is a typical Spanish tradition to welcome the New Year. As the saying goes: primero cae la bola, luego suenan los cuartos y después las campanada. Cousins fight between themselves to choose the TV channel for watching the strokes of midnight. And at the end, all of them end up with their mouths full of grapes trying to say … Which one is the next stroke?

It is our way of greeting the New Year, of wishing those things that we wish to happen, of having good purposes … It is the time to stop and start again. To take a deep breath and say:  I will sign up for gym membership, I will save money, I will give up smoking … because it is the thought that counts, isn’t it?

And in such remarkable moment, the Intellectual Property has a lot to say. IP will not be able to help us to lose weight during 2019 or to fill the piggy bank, but IP will assure a proper identification for quality products (such as the grapes we take every end of the year). For example, who is not familiar with Vinalopó grapes?

As the preamble of the Spanish Designations of Origin and Geographical Indications Law rightly states: «Spain is characterized as a country with great cultural and historical diversity which is reflected in the recognition of a large number of foods with quality characteristics due to the geographical area in which they have originated, mainly in the form of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications».

Trademarks help us to identify what we like, what we believe in, and in that case, the kind of grape we chose every year to say …

Happy New Year!