A
GENDA ITEM 2: ELECTION OF A CHAIR AND TWO VICE-CHAIRS
13 Mr. Mihály Ficsor (Hungary) was unanimously elected as Chair of the Working Group, Mr. Behzad Saberi Ansari (Iran (Islamic Republic of)) and Mrs. Ana Gobechia (Georgia) were unanimously elected as Vice-Chairs.
14 Mr. Matthijs Geuze (WIPO) acted as Secretary to the Working Group.
AGENDA ITEM 3: ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
15 The Working Group adopted the draft agenda (document LI/WG/DEV/8/1 Prov.) without modification.
AGENDA ITEM 4: Report of the Seventh Session of the Working Group on the development of the lisbon system (appellations of origin)
16 The Working Group took note of the adoption, on November 19, 2013, of the report of the seventh session of the Working Group, as contained in document LI/WG/DEV/7/7, in accordance with the procedure established at the fifth session of the Working Group.
Agenda Item 5: Draft revised lisbon agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications and Draft Regulations Under The Draft revised lisbon agreement
17 Discussions were based on documents LI/WG/DEV/8/2, LI/WG/DEV/8/3, LI/WG/DEV/8/4 and LI/WG/DEV/8/5.
18 Referring to the recent decision of the Lisbon Union Assembly on convening a Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Revised Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications in 2015, the Chair indicated that the activities of the Working Group had obviously reached a new crucial and decisive stage, as it now had a clear mandate to fulfill, namely, the preparation of a diplomatic conference for the adoption of a Revised Lisbon Agreement. He added that, in accordance with the roadmap that had been approved by the Lisbon Union Assembly, another Working Group session would be held in the first half of 2014 and could be followed by an additional session in the second half of 2014, should the Working Group find it necessary. He then clarified that the exact dates and venue for the diplomatic conference would be determined at the Preparatory Committee meeting. The Chair recalled that, at its sixth and seventh sessions, the Working Group had managed to reach agreement on the main directions to be taken in the revision of the Lisbon Agreement. In particular, it had been agreed that the revised Lisbon Agreement would take the form of a single instrument covering both appellations of origin and geographical indications and would provide for a single and high-level of protection for both, while maintaining separate definitions for appellations of origin and geographical indications, on the understanding that the same substantive provisions would apply to both. The Chair observed that it had also been largely agreed that the revised Lisbon Agreement would establish a single International Register covering both appellations of origin and geographical indications and that competent intergovernmental organizations would be given the possibility of joining the system. He concluded by saying that those directions had been confirmed by the Lisbon Union Assembly at its last session, in September/October 2013.
19 The Chair then pointed out that for the present session the Secretariat had submitted a new version of the draft Revised Lisbon Agreement and the draft Regulations following those main directions and expressed his hope that significant progress would be made at the present session on the basis of those documents to pave the way for a successful diplomatic conference in 2015. The Chair indicated that he intended to conduct deliberations in an open, fair, accurate and constructive manner at the present session, while also indicating that in view of the advanced stage of the discussions and the degree of maturity of the draft Revised Lisbon Agreement, he would work towards building consensus on as many issues as possible. He added that his priority concern would be to make the discussions as focused as possible concentrating on the most important aspects of the ongoing revision exercise and the main choices that still had to be made. In that regard, he stressed that delegations would have to make joint efforts to clean up the text by reducing the number of options and square brackets, which of course necessitated a common agreement on some of those still outstanding issues. He also said that delegations should not hesitate to contact him in case of procedural or substantive issues. Finally, he encouraged delegations to convey any purely editorial suggestions to the Secretariat.
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