Negotiators approved a revision of an international registration system providing protection for names that identify the geographic origin of products such as coffee, tea, fruits, wine, pottery, glass and cloth.
A Diplomatic Conference was held in Geneva from May 11 to 21, 2015 and adopted the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications.
The Geneva Act allows the international registration of geographical indications (GIs), in addition to appellations of origin, and permits the accession to the Lisbon Agreement by certain intergovernmental organizations.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry concluded by thanking delegations from all WIPO member states for their very constructive engagement. He said all delegations showed “an openness to discuss different approaches in a very positive spirit.”
The President of the Diplomatic Conference Ambassador Luis Enrique Chávez Basagoitia, Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the diplomatic conference and called the adoption of the Geneva Act a “transcendental moment” for the Lisbon Union and WIPO.
The Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement further develops the legal framework of the Lisbon System, which helps promote many globally marketed products such as, for example, Scotch whiskey, Darjeeling tea and Café de Colombia.
Other changes affect fee provisions, scope of protection, protection against becoming generic, and safeguards for respect of prior trademark rights.
An official signing ceremony is scheduled for May 21, 2015, at WIPO’s Geneva headquarters.
The Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement will enter into force three months after five eligible parties have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession.
The basic negotiating text for the Diplomatic Conference was developed between 2008 and 2014 by a Lisbon System working group with the goal of attracting a wider membership to the System, while preserving its principles and objectives.
The Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration was originally concluded in 1958.
