WIPO Members Demand Full Participation In GI Negotiations At WIPO

As the World Intellectual Property Organization prepares to host high-level negotiations next week to amend an agreement protecting appellations of origins to include geographical indications, a number of WIPO member states are asking that the whole WIPO membership be allowed to participate on an equal footing to the negotiations, not only the 28 members of the treaty.

One member of the Lisbon System for the International Registration of Appellations of Origin and several key non-members have sent letters to the Lisbon membership, copying the whole WIPO membership, making their case. Concerned members include the sizeable non-European economies of Argentina, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States.

The Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a New Act of the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration is set to take place from 11-21 May.

Israel, a member of the Lisbon system, had previously voiced its support for the full participation of the WIPO membership in the diplomatic conference, and on 22 April sent a letter [pdf] reiterating its request.

The letter was addressed to the signatories of a 30 March letter (see below) from other WIPO members calling for full participation in the diplomatic conference. Israel said it “deeply identifies with the need of inclusiveness and equality of all member States in every UN [United Nations] forum.”

“On a pragmatic ground, one of the goals of the Revision of the Lisbon Agreement is to attract more than its current 28 members. It seems difficult to do so by preventing WIPO members to equally participate at the Diplomatic Conference,” the letter said.

“This Conference would both change a commonly agreed practice and set a problematic precedent for the future of the organization, ignoring and trespassing the vital principle of inclusiveness,” Israel added.

On 14 April, the delegation of Singapore also sent a letter [pdf] to “the Ambassadors of Lisbon Union Members” calling for a change in the rules of procedure to the Diplomatic Conference “to allow for full and equal participation by all WIPO Members.”

Mentioning its earlier request, Singapore said, “this was done on the principle that transparency and inclusiveness are fundamental to the good working and credibility of WIPO and is especially relevant when what many consider to be a substantive change to a WIPO Treaty is now being contemplated.”

Also addressed to “the Ambassadors of Lisbon Union Members” was a 30 March letter [pdf] co-signed by the delegations of Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, South Korea, and the United States, underlining the fact that WIPO members “have enjoyed equal status in all WIPO Diplomatic Conferences for the last 25 years.”

However, the letter said, “this well-established practice stands to be disrupted on 11 May 2015 when the 28 Members of the Lisbon Union convene a Diplomatic Conference to expand the scope of their existing treaty and create a new international system for the protection of geographical indications.”

The co-signatories urged Lisbon members to reconsider their approach, and said that they are “concerned about the institutional implications for WIPO if its historically inclusive and consensus-based approach to international norm setting is overlooked by Lisbon Union Members.”

“Our interest in the negotiations is genuine,” said the letter, adding that the protection of geographical indications is a subject matter of interest to all WIPO members. It also said stakeholders in all WIPO members, including intellectual property rights holders, agricultural producers, and industrial producers stand to be commercially affected by decisions made by Lisbon members.

Back in October, nine countries, including Israel, put forward a proposal to amend the rules of procedures of the diplomatic conference as well as the list of invited member states to allow full participation of the whole WIPO membership on an equal basis at the diplomatic conference (IPW, WIPO, 15 October 2014).

Lisbon members have invoked the Vienna Convention on Laws of Treaties to explain their decision to allow only Lisbon members to have a voting capacity in the Diplomatic Conference (IPW, WIPO, 31 October 2014).

In particular, they cited Article 39 and Article 40 of the Vienna Convention [pdf]. Article 39 (General rule regarding the amendment of treaties) states, “A treaty may be amended by agreement between the parties….”

Article 40 (Amendment to international treaties) paragraph 2 states: “Any proposal to amend a multilateral treaty as between all the parties must be notified to all the contracting States, each one of which shall have the right to take part in: a) the decision as to the action to be taken in regard to such proposal; (b) the negotiation and conclusion of any agreement for the amendment of the treaty.”

It remains to be seen how this will play out next week. None of the protest letters so far indicated what will be done if their request for full participation is not met.