Applying a false trade description to goods is a strict liability offence : provided it is shown that the description was applied and was false, the accused has to prove certain defences in order to escape conviction.
2.
Governments have been protecting trade names and trademarks used in relation to food products identified with a particular region since at least the end of the nineteenth century, using laws against false trade descriptions or passing off, which generally protect against suggestions that a product has a certain origin, quality or association when it does not.