Abstract：Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) encapsulates the unique historical memories, spiritual values, thought processes, and imaginative powers of the Chinese nation, serving as a pivotal expression of its traditional culture. Concurrently, Geographical Indications (GIs) function as vital markers of cultural heritage within specific regions, and are integral to the framework of intellectual property rights. Both ICH and GIs share attributes such as collective public rights, regional specificity, and indefinite continuity. These features not only encapsulate the distinctive values of ICH across various regions but also stand as crucial carriers of China’s exemplary traditional culture. This provides a conducive environment across natural, social, and organizational dimensions for the legislative protection of “ICH GI products”. However, the protection legislation and its practice for ICH GI products encounter various challenges, including issues related to the overlap and integration of GIs with ICH attributes, the scope of protection, and conflicts with trademarks. These challenges may impact the effectiveness of the protection granted to ICH GI products.Drawing inspiration from the European Union’s approach and leveraging experiences from its establishment of international frameworks for GI registration and protection (such as the Lisbon System), this approach includes recognizing specific GIs, fostering cultural heritage in agriculture, crafts, and industry, ensuring consumer access to reliable information related to these products, and setting up specialized protection legislation for craft products. In response, China has initially included a dedicated chapter in the “Geographical Indications Regulations” that not only adopts GI protection for traditional crafts but also preserves the associated cultural elements. Furthermore, a distinct administrative regulation for traditional crafts GIs has been created, focusing on addressing the practical challenges faced by traditional crafts and GIs development. This regulation standardizes procedures such as applications and protection, thus providing a systematic support framework for traditional crafts to pursue GI protection pathways. Lastly, under the guiding principle of “coordinated regional development”, enhanced collaboration among various ICH entities at different levels is promoted, alongside maximizing the roles of ICH industry associations. This implementation of cross-level and cross-regional collaborations on traditional craft projects and joint GI applications effectively enhances the protection of ICH GI products.In conclusion, ICH GI products, by virtue of their inherent characteristics related to natural conditions, social contexts, and organizational structures, embody a synergistic blend of ICH and GIs, creating a coherent and rational method of protection. Despite the presence of controversies, this method has emerged as a significant pathway for protection in practice. This research on the legislative protection of ICH GI products, focusing on background, foundational conditions, challenges, best practices, and solutions, ultimately aims at achieving legal protection and judicious use of intangible cultural heritage resources. This endeavor not only aligns with the imperative of preserving China’s distinguished traditional culture but also supports the enrichment of global cultural diversity.
2025, Vol. 55 
