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

Ambassador D. Mwape (Zambia)
European Union
B.ii Second sub-question
125. The representative of the European Union said that the representative of Australia had seemingly confused two different issues, one being the effect of the register per se, which indeed was addressed in paragraph 20 of the minutes of the previous meeting. However, Australia seemed to have overlooked the comment further on, which read "beyond that domestic authorities would have all latitude to decide for or against protection of the term on the basis of contrary evidence provided by themselves or brought by any third party". He emphasized the words "domestic authorities", which, in his view, was the opposite of extraterritoriality. 126. As the discussion was on the question of who had the burden of proving genericness, he said he failed to see any extraterritorial effects in the W/52 proposal. It proposed that those who claimed that a term was generic had to prove it and he had not heard that contested at this meeting.
The Special Session took note of the statements made.
TN/IP/M/26