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Congressional leaders not happy with WIPO

Leaders of the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees and the House Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees have sent a letter to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The WIPO is in the process of expanding the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin.  Appellations of origin offer stringent and specific protections for products from certain regions and with certain characteristics.  These include the so-called “geographic indicators” or “GIs” that the European Union has been pushing.

The Congressional leaders don’t like is a high-level conference aimed at broadening the treaty’s protection is scheduled for May but only the 28 members of the Lisbon Treaty will be allowed to participate fully. The U.S. is not among the 28.  Non-Lisbon members will be welcome to attend but with a limited role.

The letter states; “All WIPO members must be permitted to fully participate in the Diplomatic Conference.” They state allowing the negotiations to proceed as planned would undermine WIPO’s legitimacy as a global forum for the protection of intellectual property.  The leaders call on the Director General to “do everything possible to ensure all WIPO members have an equal voice in determining any revisions to the Lisbon Agreement.”

The dispute over GIs has been growing as Europeans seek to prevent others including U.S. producers from using old world names for a number of cheeses, wines and other products.

 

Signing the letter:

Senate Finance Committee Chair Orin Hatch and ranking member Ron Wyden

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley and ranking member Patrick Leahy

House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte and ranking member John Conyers Jr.

House Ways & Means Committee Chair Paul Ryan and ranking member Sander Levin

Read the letter here: