United States Hopeful Lisbon Members Will Open Diplomatic Conference To All

During a press briefing today the United States said they still have hope that the 28 members of a World Intellectual Property Organization-administered treaty will let the whole WIPO membership participate in next week’s negotiations to amend that treaty. It said that the potential new treaty protecting appellations of origins and set to include geographical indications can impact the economies of many non-member countries.

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 taking place from 11-21 May.

Should the draft rules of procedures [pdf] of the diplomatic conference remain the same, reserving voting rights for the sole 28 members of the Lisbon Agreement, it would “set a dangerous precedent,” and would be breaking a long-standing tradition of collaboration in WIPO on agreements and treaties such as this one,” a senior US official said at the press briefing.

The new act of the Lisbon Agreement as proposed would potentially have serious economic consequences for the United States and other countries, he said.

“A small number of countries is trying to impose a system on a large number of countries to advance narrow interest,” said the senior official. “That is not a collaborative multilateral approach that we think is very healthy for WIPO or for the global trading system.”

The main changes sought by the revision of the current Lisbon Agreement are to extend the protection enjoyed by appellations of origin (AOs) to geographical indications (GIs) and to allow international organisations such as the European Union to become members of the agreement.

GIs are products which have particular qualities or reputation linked to their geographical origin. AOs are GIs with more stringent production requirements.

A number of countries have recently called on Lisbon members to change their position and open the negotiations to all WIPO members (IPW, WIPO, 5 May 2015).

The changes to the agreement as envisaged “appear to be an attempt by a handful of countries to take a small existing mechanism fairly limited in scope and expand its purview significantly and in a way that could have significant negative economic consequences for a much larger number of countries,” the US official said.

Lisbon members “have decided to break a decades-long tradition within WIPO to include all WIPO members in the process of revising treaties and agreements that fall under the WIPO umbrella,” he added. The official cited the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled adopted in 2013, the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances adopted in 2012, and the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs.

Nothing in international law requires that Lisbon members hold a closed diplomatic conference or prevents them from holding an open conference, the official said.[corrected]

Since WIPO members will be able to join the new agreement, it stands to reason that non-Lisbon members have equal say in how the new agreement is put together and what it provides, the official added. It is unclear at this time, he said, whether non-Lisbon members will be allowed to be present during the most meaningful sessions of the diplomatic conference.

The United States has reached out to Lisbon members and the WIPO leadership to no avail, he said, but the country still hopes that “a spirit of openness and collaboration will prevail” and the rules of procedures can be changed. However, they fear that this request will be met “with intransigence by a small number of countries.”

Answering a question as to what the US is considering doing if the rules of procedure are not amended, the official said the US will continue to be there and participate to the extent possible, but fear that their ability to have input will be “severely limited.”

On potential economic consequences, the official said, some US “significant stakeholders” from the dairy, meat and wine industry are concerned.

“It is not just about what it means in your own market,” the official said. The main concern is the export market. Some US industries have established a presence in foreign markets and if the export countries join the new version of the Lisbon agreement, it may threaten the US industry’s traditional markets.

“A small number of countries is trying to impose a system on a large number of countries to advance narrow interest,” said the senior official. “That is not a collaborative multilateral approach that we think is very healthy for WIPO or for the global trading system.”

Another US official remarked that although countries joining the future agreement will have the choice to exclude from protection certain AOs and GIs due to prior use in those countries, that step requires resources in particular for legal research that many countries might not have, given that the treaty does not allow individual fees to help them in that process. That puts those countries at a disadvantage, she said.

“If we are not in the room to advocate for some fairness,” the second official said, “we have some concerns as to whether or not the agreement will continue the existing model, which is unfair.”