Brussels, 17/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 17 January in a press release, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) announced that “for the first time in over 13 years of talks, WTO intellectual property negotiators have started work on producing a single draft text for setting up a multilateral geographical indication register for wines and spirits”. This draft text focuses on the notification process, the first of six major subjects to be discussed on the register. It was distributed the day before to member states by the geographic indications register negotiations chairperson, Darlington Mwape. The text is about a page and a half long, with numerous square brackets around the text to indicate that the wording has not been agreed and that several options are presented to reflect the different approaches of the three proposals. The five other themes are registration, legal ramifications, costs and special treatment for developing countries and participation (voluntary or otherwise).
The next negotiations session will take place during the week of 24 January and will focus on the theme of registration. It is a tight schedule and is dictated by the trade negotiating committee's objective of developing draft texts in all Doha Round negotiating areas by the end of the third quarter of 2011. Negotiations on the multilateral geographical indications register for wines and spirits began in 1997 and were included in Doha negotiations, when they were launched in 2001. Geographical indications are one example of European Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI). Better protection of geographical indications is one of the objectives set out by the European Union in the Doha Round. Countries such as the US and Australia are much more sceptical about the usefulness of this register. (L.C./transl.fl)