Summary of the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration (1958)

The aim of the Agreement is to provide for the protection of appellations of origin, that is, the “geographical denomination of a country, region, or locality, which serves to designate a product originating therein, the quality or characteristics of which are due exclusively or essentially to the geographic environment, including natural and human factors” (Article 2). Such names are registered by the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva upon the request of the competent authorities of the interested contracting State. The International Bureau communicates the registration to the other contracting States. A contracting State may declare, within one year, that it cannot ensure the protection of a registered appellation. A registered appellation may not be presumed to have become generic in a contracting State as long as it continues to be protected in the country of origin.

The Lisbon Agreement created a Union, which has an Assembly. Every State member of the Union which has adhered to at least the administrative and final clauses of the Stockholm Act is a member of the Assembly.

The Lisbon Agreement, concluded in 1958, was revised in Stockholm in 1967, and was amended in 1979.

The Agreement  is open to States party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883). Instruments of ratification or accession must be deposited with the Director General of WIPO.