"Three-Four-Five" - A new approach towards TRIPS negotiations

During a special meeting of WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council, Negotiators endorsed new chairperson Darlington Mwape’s “three-four-five” approach towards negotiations on a multilateral register of geographical indications (GIs) for wines and spirits within the Doha Round. Chairperson Darlington Mwape, who is Zambia’s ambassador, took over on 4 March 2010.

What is “three-four-five” approach?

Three — There are three clusters of issues identified by previous chairs
Four — Four questions have been identified which need to be addressed
Five — There has been a common agreement on five guiding principles to be followed for future work

The three issues identified are:

1. legal effects or consequences of registration, and participation in the register;
2. notification and registration of terms in the register;
3. other issues, such as fees, costs, administrative and other burdens, in particular for developing countries and least developed countries, and special and differential treatment.

The four questions needed to be addressed are:

1. What legal obligations would be acceptable for the Register to facilitate the protection of geographical indications for wines and spirits as manadted by Article 23.4 of the TRIPS Agreement?
2. When making decisions regarding the registration and protection of trademarks and geographical indications, what significance and weight should national authorities give to the information on the Register?
3. Are there any options regarding participation, other than voluntary and mandatory participation? If so, what criteria could be envisaged?
4. What form could special and differential treatment [for developing and least developed countries] take with regard to the Register?

The five guiding principles to be followed are:

1. the register's purpose is to "facilitate" protection for wines and spirits, not to increase protection
2. the register should be useful and meaningful to participating members in some way
3. the “territorial nature” of intellectual property rights should be preserved (i.e., countries’ right to determine how to protect intellectual property within their own territories)
4. the register should not be too burdensome financially and administratively
5. developing countries should be given special treatment that is “precise, effective and operational”.
   
   It will be interesting to see to what extent these principles are followed for other products with GI – e.g., Darjeeling Tea
   

Contributed by:

Prof. Bikramjit Sen,

(Globsyn Business School)

source: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news10_e/trip_04mar10_e.htm