On 30 June, we organized the first webinar of our series on the oriGIn International GIs Agenda.
Massimo Vittori, Director of oriGIn, opened the session and explained the process which led to the adoption of the Geneva Act in 2015 as well as the opportunities for groups arising from the international GIs Registry established by the Treaty.
Alexandra Grazioli, Director of the Lisbon System at WIPO, presented the functioning of the system (one single application to obtain solid protection in all the Geneva Act Member States) and the new features introduced by the Treaty, in particular the protection of geographical indications together with appellations of origin (already covered by the Lisbon Agreement), the protection vis-à-vis names used in connection with non-comparable products (including services) and the clarification of the relations with prior trademarks.
Finally, Erik Thévenod-Mottet, Advisor for GIs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, explained how Switzerland has dealt with the process of accession to the Geneva Act as well as how the system will work in practice for Swiss groups once the process is completed.
