Member States Agree to Move Ahead withEfforts to Harmonize Trademark Law
Geneva, December 14, 2001
Press Updates UPD/2001/154
Delegates from the World Intellectual Property Organizations (WIPO) member states have agreed to move forward with a comprehensive program of harmonization of laws for the protection of marks. At a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT), negotiators committed to a program of work that aims to further simplify and streamline the trademark procedures and to initiate harmonization of substantive trademark law. The SCT met from December 5 to 7, 2001 and was attended by delegates from 66 member states and 11 observer organizations.
After the adoption of the Joint Recommendation on the protection of well-known marks (1999), the Joint Recommendation on trademark licenses (2000) and the Joint Recommendation on the protection of marks on the Internet (2001), member states decided to move ahead with further harmonization efforts.
Trademark formality requirements are currently governed by the WIPO Trademark Law Treaty (TLT), concluded in 1994, which serves to harmonize and simplify the formal requirements involved in trademark procedures. The SCT agreed to build on the TLT and to further simplify and expand the harmonization of formalities by introducing provisions for electronic filing, incorporating provisions contained in the WIPO Joint Recommendation on Trademark Licenses or offering relief in respect of various formal mistakes and time limits.
The SCT also decided to initiate work on harmonization of substantive trademark law particularly with regards to non-traditional marks (for instance, color marks, smell marks, three-dimensional marks) or conflicts with prior rights. Particular interest was expressed with regard to the need to evaluate the interferences between trademark law and industrial designs law or copyright law.
The SCT also engaged in a fruitful exchange of views on issues concerning definition of geographical indications, systems of protection and the underlying policy considerations, the relationship between geographical indications and trademark rights and the economic impact of various systems of protection (see https://www.wipo.int/documents/en/document/sct/index_6.htm).
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