Minutes - TRIPS Council Special Session - View details of the intervention/statement

Ambassador Eui-yong Chung (Korea, Republic of)
C.ii The purpose of the notification and registration system
88. The representative of Australia took the example of a term put on the register and challenged; both parties would enter into negotiations to resolve the disagreement; if the negotiations were not concluded within 18 months from the date of initial notification, the parties would agree to submit the case to binding arbitration. That was not consistent with the way the TRIPS Agreement was currently structured: nothing in the Agreement obliged a Member to go into an arbitration requested by another Member which had no idea how other Members territorially applied the Agreement. That was similar to the question of traditional expressions, where the EC had assured Members that there was a difference between traditional expressions and geographical indications, and had, however, stated in a public announcement regarding Regulation 753/2002 that traditional expressions were in effect geographical indications and were, therefore, covered by the definition of a geographical indication.
TN/IP/M/2