Six European organisations, The Association of European Regions for Products of Origin (AREPO), The Assembly of European Wine Regions (AREV), The European Confederation of Independent Winegrowers (CEVI), Copa-Cogeca, The European Federation of Origin Wines (EFOW) and OriGin EU asked the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU on 15 February not to give the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) too large a role in the examination of applications for the registration of agricultural geographical indications (GI).
On Monday 20 February, the experts of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will be asked to decide on three options for the tasks to be assigned to this agency in the field of GIs (see EUROPE 13120/9). The EU Council and European Parliament are seeking a position on the reforms of the GI regulation.
The six organisations say in a letter (https://aeur.eu/f/5ck ) that they are convinced that it is “crucial for the future of the GI policy that the European Commission be fully in charge of the applications for registration, amendments, oppositions, and cancellations of GIs”.
However, they believe that the EUIPO’s expertise in the field of intellectual property rights could be put to good use, as detailed in option 2 presented by the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council. Indeed, the EUIPO could, according to these organisations, play an important role by managing the Union register, as well as a domain name information and alert system, to “contribute to strengthening GI protection online”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)