Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2.89
In opposition to the proposals for an extension of the protection of GIs for
wines and spirits under TRIPS to all products, on 29 June 2001 a joint
communication was sent to the TRIPS Council by Argentina, Australia,
Canada, Chile, Guatemala, New Zealand, Paraguay and the United States
( Joint Communication).
43
The Communication argued that the advantages of
Art 23 protection were overstated and, relevantly for the current project, that
the proposals for the extension of the TRIPS wines and spirits provisions to all
products had insufficiently addressed the costs and burdens of this extension. It
stated that '[t]hese new costs and burdens include administration costs, trade
implications for producers, increased potential for consumer confusion, poten-
tial producer conflicts within the WTO Members and a heightened risk of
WTO disputes'.
44
As was mentioned in the preceding section, in July 2008 a group of WTO
Members called for a 'procedural decision' to negotiate the multilateral register
and the extension of Art 23 in parallel, together with a proposal to require
patent applicants to disclose the origin of genetic resources or traditional
knowledge used in their inventions.
2.90
In relation to GI-Extension the proposed text was that:
2.91
1.
Members agree to the extension of the protection of Article 23 of the TRIPS
Agreement to geographical indications for all products, including the extension of
the Register.
2.
Text based negotiations shall be undertaken, in Special Sessions of the TRIPS
Council and as an integral part of the Single Undertaking, to amend the TRIPS
Agreement in order to extend the protection of Article 23 of the TRIPS Agree-
ment to geographical indications for all products as well as to apply to these the
exceptions provided in Article 24 of the TRIPS Agreement
mutatis mutandis
.
On 19 April 2011 a Communication from Albania, China, Croatia, the
European Union, Georgia, Guinea, Jamaica, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Madagas-
car, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Switzerland proposed that section 3 of
TRIPS be amended by removing the reference to Wines and Spirits in the
heading of Art 23 and by deleting all the references to wines and spirits in that
Article, thereby rendering that Article applicable to all goods.
45
2.92
43
WTO Doc IP/C/W/289.
44
Ibid, Attachment at para 13.
45
'Draft Decision to Amend Section 3 of Part II of The TRIPS Agreement', WTO Doc TN/C/W/6, 19 April
2011.
