Senate, House Committee Leaders Push to Preserve IP Standards, Market Access for Products Around the Globe

In Letter, Bipartisan Leaders on Senate Finance, House Ways & Means, and Senate & House Judiciary Committees Call for Full Participation of WIPO Members In Negotiations to Amend Lisbon Agreement

WASHINGTON – Today, leaders on the international trade and judicial committees in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives called on the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Francis Gurry, to ensure all WIPO members have an equal voice in amending the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin. The lawmakers want to ensure that any potential changes to the treaty preserve protections for users of common or generic names and for holders of established trademarks around the globe.

The Lisbon Agreement is a WIPO-administered treaty that allows parties to the agreement to simultaneously register Appellations of Origin with all parties to the agreement. The proposed changes would substantially expand the scope of the Lisbon Agreement to allow for registration of Geographical Indications (GI’s) and could threaten market access for many common products, such as feta cheese, around the world.

Given that only 28 of the 188 WIPO members are parties to the Lisbon Agreement, lawmakers in Congress are concerned that departing from WIPO’s longstanding practice to allow this limited group of WIPO Members to amend the Agreement could result in unwanted changes that would ultimately harm workers and businesses in the United States and around the world.

“WIPO’s legitimacy as a global forum for the protection of intellectual property throughout the world could be called into question by departing from standard practice and allowing a limited group of WIPO Members to substantially amend the Lisbon Agreement in a way that harms market access and the intellectual property rights of stakeholders from other WIPO Members, including the United States,” wrote the lawmakers. “Such a step would be contrary to longstanding WIPO practice, which is to encourage broad participation because of the far-reaching effect of its decisions. Therefore, we strongly urge you to do everything possible to ensure all WIPO Members have an equal voice in determining any revisions to the Lisbon Agreement.”

Signing the letter today were: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.)

The Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees have jurisdiction over international trade policy and the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have jurisdiction over intellectual property law and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The text of the letter is below and a signed copy can be found here.

Director General Francis Gurry

World Intellectual Property Organization

34, chemin des Colombettes

CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland

Director General Gurry:

We write to express serious concerns about the process by which the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is seeking to make changes to the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin. These proposed changes would have a significant impact on companies across the globe whose business depends on the use of common or generic names or on the integrity of established trademarks. Consistent with longstanding WIPO practice, and in the interests of transparency and basic procedural fairness, these changes must be carefully vetted by all Members of WIPO before proceeding further.

As you are aware, this WIPO-administered treaty allows parties to the agreement to simultaneously register Appellations of Origin with all parties to the Lisbon Agreement. The revisions to this treaty would markedly expand its scope, allowing for the registration of geographical indications.

Unfortunately, the views of all WIPO Members are not being adequately taken into account in the Lisbon Agreement revision process, even though the proposed changes will have substantial consequences for many of the countries that have been excluded, including the United States. The revisions are scheduled to be taken up for consideration and approval at this year’s Diplomatic Conference, but contrary to the common WIPO protocol of the last quarter century, non-parties to the Lisbon Agreement are currently not permitted to fully participate.

All WIPO Members must be permitted to fully participate in the Diplomatic Conference. The full participation of all WIPO Members in the creation and substantial revision of treaties is essential to WIPO’s ability to foster global consensus in an inclusive manner on important issues of concern to the international community.

This is particularly true regarding the proposed changes to the Lisbon Agreement because the expansion, as currently envisioned, could have very negative consequences for the global trading environment, with sweeping effects beyond the Lisbon parties, including on businesses and the workers they employ. In particular, we are concerned that the expanded agreement will not provide adequate protections for users of common or generic names or for prior trademark holders around the world. Without these safeguards, companies in the United States and elsewhere could see their sales opportunities and intellectual property rights eroded in various markets around the world. This is already occurring in many countries where U.S. companies face geographical indications registrations that threaten to internationally block their use of common food names or negatively impact existing protections for their established trademarks.

WIPO’s legitimacy as a global forum for the protection of intellectual property throughout the world could be called into question by departing from standard practice and allowing a limited group of WIPO Members to substantially amend the Lisbon Agreement in a way that harms market access and the intellectual property rights of stakeholders from other WIPO Members, including the United States. Such a step would be contrary to longstanding WIPO practice, which is to encourage broad participation because of the far-reaching effect of its decisions. Therefore, we strongly urge you to do everything possible to ensure all WIPO Members have an equal voice in determining any revisions to the Lisbon Agreement.

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