Characteristic and traditional European label (9)
I believe the answer is:
trademark
'characteristic' is the definition.
(trademark is a kind of characteristic)
'traditional european label' is the wordplay.
'traditional' becomes 'trad' (abbreviation - especially in music 'trad jazz').
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'label' becomes 'mark' (marking is a kind of labelling**).
'trad'+'e'+'mark'='TRADEMARK'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for trademark that I've seen before include "Registered sign of a manufacturer" , "Brand - identifying symbol" , "Proprietary name" , "Registered company symbol" , "sign of concern" .)