Article 15 Transitional periods for use of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications

Without prejudice to Article 14, the F1Secretary of State may, by regulations, make provision for a transitional period of up to five years to apply to enable products F2... the designation of which consists of or contains a name that contravenes Article 13(1) to continue to use the designation under which it was marketed F3if the Secretary of State is satisfied that an admissible statement of opposition under F4... Article 51 shows that:

F5...

Without prejudice to Article 14, F6an application may be made to the Secretary of State to extend the transitional period mentioned in paragraph 1 to 15 years in duly justified cases and the Secretary of State may, by regulations, make provision for such a transitional provision if the Secretary of State is satisfied that:

F8...

When using a designation referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, the indication of country of origin shall clearly and visibly appear on the labelling.

To overcome temporary difficulties with the long-term objective of ensuring that all producers in the area concerned comply with the specification, F9nothing in this Regulation prevents the Secretary of State from using any power the Secretary of State has to make regulations to provide for a transitional period of up to 10 years to apply, with effect from the date on which the application is lodged with the F10Secretary of State, on condition that the operators concerned have legally marketed the products in question, using the names concerned continuously for at least the five years prior to the lodging of the application F11... and have made that point in the F12... opposition procedure referred to in Article F1351.

The first subparagraph shall apply mutatis mutandis to a protected geographical indication or protected designation of origin referring to a geographical area situated in a third country, with the exception of the opposition procedure.

Such transitional periods shall be indicated in the application F14submitted under Article 8(1).